Charlie and I decided long ago that in an investment lifetime, it's too hard to make hundreds of smart decisions. That judgment became ever more compelling as Berkshire's capital mushroomed and the universe of investments that could significantly affect our results shrank dramatically. Therefore, we adopted a strategy that required our being smart and not too smart at that, only a very few times. Indeed, we now settle for one good idea a year.

First, many in Wall Street - a community in which quality control is not prized - will sell investors anything they will buy.

You know ... you keep doing the same things and you keep getting the same result over and over again.

I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don't like because you think it will look good on your resume. Isn't that a little like saving up sex for your old age?

Derivatives are like sex. It's not who we're sleeping with, it's who they're sleeping with that's the problem.

If you knew what was going to happen in the economy, you still wouldn't necessarily know what was going to happen in the stock market.

Accounting is the language of business.