Everybody's got a different circle of competence. The important thing is not how big the circle is. The important thing is staying inside the circle.

The best business returns are usually achieved by companies that are doing something quite similar today to what they were doing five or ten years ago.

Stocks are the only thing that people are happy to buy when the price goes up.

In investing, just as in baseball, to put runs on the scoreboard, one must watch the playing field, not the scoreboard.

More investment sins are probably committed by otherwise quite intelligent people because of "tax considerations" than from any other cause. One of my friends-a noted West Coast philosopher-maintains that a majority of life's errors are caused by forgetting what one is really trying to do. This is certainly the case when an emotionally supercharged element like taxes enters the picture (I have another friend-a noted East Coast philosopher who says it isn't the lack of representation he minds-it's the taxation).

You shouldn't own common stocks if a 50 per cent decrease in their value in a short period of time would cause you acute distress.

I never invest in anything that I don't understand.