Warren Buffett Quotes

Buy into a company because you want to own it, not because you want the stock to go up.

The American worker is more productive than he's ever been.

The Fed is the greatest hedge fund in history.

Americans are in a cycle of fear which leads to people not wanting to spend and not wanting to make investments, and that leads to more fear. We'll break out of it. It takes time.

Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble.

Continually challenge and be willing to amend your best loved ideas.

Investment philosophy is the clear understanding that by owning shares of stocks he owns businesses, not pieces of paper.

Do what you love and work for whom you admire the most, and you've given yourself the best chance in life you can.

If you have more than 120 or 130 I.Q. points, you can afford to give the rest away. You don't need extraordinary intelligence to succeed as an investor.

Accounting consequences do not influence our operating or capital-allocation decisions. When acquisition costs are similar, we much prefer to purchase $2 of earnings that is not reportable by us under standard accounting principles than to purchase $1 of earnings that is reportable.

A prediction about the direction of the stock market tells you nothing about where stocks are headed, but a whole lot about the person doing the predicting.

Never risk what you have and need for what we don't have and don't need.

I really like my life. I've arranged my life so that I can do what I want.

Benign neglect, bordering on sloth, remains the hallmark of our investment process.

Intrinsic value can be defined simply: It is the discounted value of the cash that can be taken out of a business during its remaining life.

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

Be fearful when there is greed and be greedy when there is fear.

To invest successfully, you need not understand beta, efficient markets, modern portfolio theory, option pricing or emerging markets. You may, in fact, be better off knowing nothing of these. That, of course, is not the prevailing view at most business schools, whose finance curriculum tends to be dominated by such subjects. In our view, though, investment students need only two well-taught courses - How to Value a Business, and How to Think About Market Prices.

In looking for people to hire, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you.

Resolution Trust Company was set up to liquidate a bunch of assets that the government had inherited because the savings and loans went broke.

Well, one time some attractive woman sat next to Charlie and asked him what he owed his success to, and, unfortunately, she insisted on a one word answer. He had a speech prepared that would have gone on for several hours. But when forced to boil it down to one word, he said that was "rational". You know, he comes equipped for rationality, and he applies it in business. He doesn't always apply it elsewhere, but he applies it in business and that has made him a huge business success.

Investment decision should be made on the basis of the most probable compounding of after-tax net worth with minimum risk.

I think that they hoped the private sector would come in. And the private sector tried to come in until they saw the size of the problem. I mean, from were people on that weekend that thought they'd had a solution. And then the hole kept getting bigger and bigger. And all of a sudden became apparent that 20 billion wouldn't do it and 30 billion wouldn't do it and 40 billion wouldn't do it. So it got beyond anybody's ability to certainly to do it in a short period of time.

I think that trying to invest through 535 people is a tough job, you know, and so I would give more latitude.

Outstanding long-term results are produced primarily by avoiding dumb decisions, rather than by making brilliant ones.

I wouldn’t mind going to jail if I had three cellmates who played bridge

You don't need to have extraordinary effort to achieve extraordinary results. You just need to do the ordinary, everyday things exceptionally well.

When they get their ego involved, people do things they shouldn't do.

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.

I mean, in terms of alternatives, some people have suggested for example that why don't we - why isn't America doing what Berkshire Hathaway is doing? Why isn't that a better deal for America?

Would your reply possibly be this? Well, it all depends on what my tax rate will be on the gain you're saying we're going to make. If the taxes are too high, I would rather leave the money in my savings account, earning a quarter of 1 percent. Only in Grover Norquist's imagination does such a response exist.

You ought to be able to explain why you’re taking the job you’re taking, why you’re making the investment you’re making, or whatever it may be. And if it can’t stand applying pencil to paper, you’d better think it through some more. And if you can’t write an intelligent answer to those questions, don’t do it.

I think the most important factor in getting out of the recession actually is just the regenerative capacity of - of American capitalism.

The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don’t have to swing at everything – you can wait for your pitch.

If you can't read the scoreboard. You don't know the score. If you don't know the score, you can't tell the winners from the losers.

I've argued with the senators and congressmen I've talked to. You don't want to be too little too late. If you buy them at the right price, you may be buying two trillion of face value.

Like I say, I don't think it'll be done perfectly. Maybe we'll end up with a little bit better [economy] system.

When investing, pessimism is your friend, euphoria the enemy.

Always invest for the long term.

A pin lies in wait for every bubble. And when the two eventually meet, a new wave of investors learns some very old lessons: First, many in Wall Street (a community in which quality control is not prized) will sell investors anything they will buy. Second, speculation is most dangerous when it looks easiest.

The U.S. Treasury has got borrowing costs like nobody else has.

We're paying maybe 25 percent of the income tax, but the payroll tax is over a third of the receipts of the federal government. And they don't take that from me on capital gains. They don't take that from me on dividends.

Always associate yourself with people who are better than you.

Earnings can be pliable as putty when a charlatan heads the company reporting them.

The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth.

The true investor welcomes volatility ... a wildly fluctuating market means that irrationally low prices will periodically be attached to solid businesses.

When bills come due, only cash is legal tender. Don't leave home without it.

Over the years, a number of very smart people have learned the hard way that a long string of impressive numbers multiplied by a single zero always equals zero.