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.

Much success can be attributed to inactivity. Most investors cannot resist the temptation to constantly buy and sell.

Whatever you like to do, make it a hobby and whatever the world likes to do, make it a business.

If you're in a card game and you can't figure out who the patsy is, you're it.

I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life.

Intensity is the price of excellence.

If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.