Investors have to remember: corporate profits are going up, but stocks are going up faster. How can that continue indefinitely? Investors can only earn what companies themselves can earn; the government or the markets themselves don't kick anything in. How can you get anything more out of a farm than what it grows?
Warren BuffettI've never been very fully employed either but just think of what it's like, you know, to go home with a mortgage payment you know and kids and everything else. My dad had that happen to him in the early '30s.
Warren BuffettIf you lose money for the firm, I will be forgiving. If you lose reputation, I will be ruthless.
Warren BuffettIn a difficult business, no sooner is one problem solved than another surfaces - never is there just one cockroach in the kitchen.
Warren BuffettAnyone who believes a growth rate in excess of 15% per annum over the long term is attainable should pursue a career in sales, but avoid one in mathematics.
Warren BuffettInvesting in yourself is the best thing you can do. If you've got talents, no one can take them from you.
Warren BuffettThe market system rewards me outlandishly for what I do, but that doesn't mean I'm any more deserving of a good life than a teacher or a doctor or someone who fights in Afghanistan.
Warren BuffettIt's just that right now the athlete's on the floor. But we - this is a super athlete.
Warren BuffettAIG would be doing fine today. It was one of the ten largest companies in the United States in terms of market value, over 200 billion, the most respected insurer and everything in the world.
Warren BuffettWe say we are trying to buy into businesses with excellent economics, run by honest and able people at a decent price. We buy very few securities, so we look at it as "focused" investing.
Warren BuffettI'm just lucky to have been in the right place at the right time. Another place, another time, I wouldn't have been as successful. Society enabled me to make my money and my money should go to society.
Warren BuffettA newspaper that reduces its coverage of the news important to its community is certain to reduce its readership as well
Warren BuffettI think once you start putting phony figures into financial statements, you get in a lot of trouble. And we've seen so much of that in the last 20 years.
Warren Buffett...I will give you two pieces of advice. Invest as much in yourself as you can; you are your own best asset by far. Then follow your passion; you want to be really excited to get out of bed every morning.
Warren BuffettFailing conventionally is the route to go; as a group, lemmings may have a rotten image, but no individual lemming has ever received bad press
Warren BuffettYou have to turn over a lot of rocks to find those little anomalies. You have to find the companies that are off the map - way off the map. You may find local companies that have nothing wrong with them at all. A company that I found, Western Insurance Securities, was trading for $3/share when it was earning $20/share!! I tried to buy up as much of it as possible. No one will tell you about these businesses. You have to find them.
Warren BuffettI mean the truth is, I've never had it so good in terms of taxes. I am paying the lowest tax rate that I've ever paid in my life.
Warren BuffettI like to go for cinches. I like to shoot fish in a barrel. But I like to do it after the water has run out.
Warren BuffettIf you don’t feel comfortable making a rough estimate of the asset’s future earnings, just forget it and move on. No one has the ability to evaluate every investment possibility. But omniscience isn’t necessary; you only need to understand the actions you undertake.
Warren BuffettI have no use whatsoever for projections or forecasts. They create an illusion of apparent precision. The more meticulous they are, the more concerned you should be. We never look at projections, but we care very much about, and look very deeply at, track records. If a company has a lousy track record, but a very bright future, we will miss the opportunity.
Warren BuffettI do know that when I am 60, I should be attempting to achieve different personal goals than those which had priority at age 20.
Warren BuffettCan you know you can have institutions that put curbs on that in various ways, and actually what the banks, you know, they have various capital ratios and that sort of thing, but the banks got around them, I mean, they set up sieves and that sort of thing just to get more leverage. People love leverage when it's working. I mean, it's so easy to borrow money from a guy at X and put it out at X.
Warren BuffettIf you own the only newspaper in town, up until the last five years or so, you have pricing power and you didn't have to go to the office.
Warren BuffettI would say the most satisfying thing actually is watching my three children each pick up on their own interests and work many more hours per week than most people that have jobs at trying to intelligently give away that money in fields that they particularly care about.
Warren BuffettWe do not view the company itself as the ultimate owner of our business assets but instead view the company as a conduit through which our shareholders own assets.
Warren BuffettA pack of lemmings looks like a group of rugged individualists compared with Wall Street when it gets a concept in its teeth.
Warren BuffettIt's going to be tough because the economy is going to be getting worse for a while. And it might fall off a cliff if this doesn't pass. But nobody will ever know that if it does.
Warren BuffettThe commission of the investment sins listed above is not limited to 'the little guy.' Huge institutional investors, viewed as a group, have long underperformed the unsophisticated index-fund investor who simply sits tight for decades. A major reason has been fees: Many institutions pay substantial sums to consultants who, in turn, recommend high-fee managers. And that is a fool's game.
Warren Buffett