Background Image
...
The Less Prudence With Which Others Conduct Their Affairs, The Greater The Prudence With Which We Should Conduct Our Own Affairs.
-Warren Buffett
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

The Less Prudence With

Warren Buffett
...
The Less Prudence With Which Others Conduct Their Affairs, The Greater The Prudence With Which We Should Conduct Our Own Affairs.

Understanding the Quote: "the less prudence with which others conduct their affairs, the greater the..."

This quote by Warren Buffett reflects deeply on the theme of insightful. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Insightful, Investing, Affair, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Warren Buffett interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett is celebrated for insightful thoughts on insightful and investing. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 79299
Topic
Insightful
Investing
Affair
More From Warren Buffett
A Bull Market Is Like Sex. It Feels Best Just Before It Ends.
Sex
Bulls
Ends
As Of 1992, In Fact-though The Picture Would Have Improved Since Then-the Money That Had Been Made Since The Dawn Of Aviation By All Of This Country's Airline Companies Was Zero. Absolutely Zero.
Country
Zero
Airline Business
They Say The Chains Of Habit Are Too Light To Be Felt Until They Are Too Heavy To Be Broken. The Chains You Put Around Yourself Now Have Enormous Consequences As You Go Through Life.
Business
Light
Broken
We Have Usually Made Our Best Purchases When Apprehensions About Some Macro Event Were At A Peak. Fear Is The Foe Of The Faddist, But The Friend Of The Fundamentalist.
Events
Made
Macro
Take Wrigley's Chewing Gum. I Don't Think The Internet Is Going To Change How People Chew Gum.
Thinking
People
Gum
You Could Be Somewhere Where The Mail Was Delayed Three Weeks And Do Just Fine Investing.
Three
Investing
Mail
I May Have More Money Than You, But Money Doesn't Make The Difference. If There Is Any Difference Between You And Me, It May Simply Be That I Get Up And Have A Chance To Do What I Love To Do, Every Day. If You Learn Anything From Me, This Is The Best Advice I Can Give You.
Differences
Giving
Advice
There Is No Question We Have An Access Stock.
Access
I Try To Buy Stock In Businesses That Are So Wonderful That An Idiot Can Run Them. Because Sooner Or Later, One Will.
Running
Business
Investing Money
I Never Try To Predict The Market.
Trying
Of One Thing Be Certain: If A Ceo Is Enthused About A Particularly Foolish Acquisition, Both His Internal Staff And His Outside Advisors Will Come Up With Whatever Projections Are Needed To Justify His Stance. Only In Fairy Tales Are Emperors Told That They Are Naked.
Naked
Acquisition
Fairy Tale
I Was Lucky To Have The Right Heroes. Tell Me Who Your Heroes Are And I'll Tell You How You'll Turn Out To Be. The Qualities Of The One You Admire Are The Traits That You, With A Little Practice, Can Make Your Own, And That, If Practiced, Will Become Habit Forming.
Hero
Practice
Quality
Investing Requires Qualities Of Temperament Way More Than It Requires Qualities Of Intellect.
Quality
Investing
Way
Just Imagine Living On 21,000 A Year. I Mean You Have 20 Percent Of The Population Doing That. So You Don't Have To Worry About Guys Like Me.
Mean
Years
Worry
Our Leaders Have Asked For “shared Sacrifice.” But When They Did The Asking, They Spared Me. I Checked With My Mega-rich Friends To Learn What Pain They Were Expecting. They, Too, Were Left Untouched.
Pain
Sacrifice
Leader
If You Get To My Age In Life And Nobody Thinks Well Of You, I Don't Care How Big Your Bank Account Is, Your Life Is A Disaster.
Thinking
Age
Care
Investing Is Forgoing Consumption Now In Order To Have The Ability To Consume More At A Later Date.
Order
Investing
Ability
I Understand Goldman Sachs Businesses. We Do Lot Of Business With Him, And Ge Has Been - I Think It's The Longest Running Stock In The Dow Jones Industrial Average. It Will Be 100 Years Now It Will Be Around. I Hope I'm Around Then, Too. And It Was An Attractive Investment. And We Have Had A Lot Of Money Around, Over The Last Two Years, And We're Seeing Things That Are Attractive Now.
Running
Thinking
Average
Goldman Sachs Saying They Might Be Interested In Such An Investment. I'm Familiar With The Company. I've Known The Management, The Current Management, Jack Welch Before Jeff Immelt. I've Known Him For Decades.
Might
Management
Investment
America Should Stand For More Than Just Wealth.
Wealth
That Which Is Not Worth Doing At All Is Not Worth Doing Well.
Wells
You Don't Ever Ask A Barber Whether You Need A Haircut.
Funny
Humor
Needs
The Only Time To Buy These Is On A Day With No 'y' In It.
Funny
Life
Money
Take The Probability Of Loss Times The Amount Of Possible Loss From The Probability Of Gain Times The Amount Of Possible Gain. That Is What We're Trying To Do. It's Imperfect, But That's What It's All About.
Loss
Trying
Gains
You Have No Ability, If You're A Financial Institution And You're Threatened With Criminal Prosecution, You Have No Ability To Negotiate.
Criminals
Financial
Institutions
I Don't Think It Would Be Crazy To Have A Model Or An Entity Model On The Reconstruction Finance Corp.
Crazy
Thinking
Would Be
Too Often, Executive Compensation In The U.s. Is Ridiculously Out Of Line With Performance. That Won't Change, Moreover, Because The Deck Is Stacked Against Investors When It Comes To The Ceo's Pay. The Upshot Is That A Mediocre-or-worse Ceo - Aided By His Handpicked Vp Of Human Relations And A Consultant From The Ever-accommodating Firm Of Ratchet, Ratchet And Bingo - All Too Often Receives Gobs Of Money From An Ill-designed Compensation Arrangement.
Business
Bingo
Gob
Investment Philosophy Is The Clear Understanding That By Owning Shares Of Stocks He Owns Businesses, Not Pieces Of Paper.
Philosophy
Understanding
Pieces
A Public-opinion Poll Is No Substitute For Thought.
Life
War
Generosity
I Think That Actually People In My Situation Should Be Paying More Tax.
Thinking
People
Should
I Never Buy Anything Unless I Can Fill Out On A Piece Of Paper My Reasons. I May Be Wrong, But I Would Know The Answer To That ...i'm Paying $32 Billion Today For The Coca Cola Company Because... If You Can't Answer That Question, You Shouldn't Buy It. If You Can Answer That Question, And You Do It A Few Times, You'll Make A Lot Of Money.
May
Today
Investing Your Time
Someone's Sitting In The Shade Today Because Someone Planted A Tree A Long Time Ago. The Person Sitting In The Shade Now Should Be Grateful For The Person Who Planted And Tended That Tree. That Includes All Those Benefactors Of Humanity Throughout History That Created, Invented, Financed, Produced, Maintained And Improved All That We Enjoy Today.
Gratitude
Grateful
Long
The Real Fortunes In This Country Have Been Made By People Who Have Been Right About The Business They Invested In, And Not Right About The Timing Of The Stock Market.
Country
Real
People
Like Most Trends, At The Beginning It's Driven By Fundamentals, At Some Point Speculation Takes Over. What The Wise Man Does In The Beginning, The Fool Does In The End.
Wise
Men
Doe
I’ve Never Believed In Risking What My Family And Friends Have And Need In Order To Pursue What They Don’t Have And Don’t Need.
Order
Family And Friends
Needs
Focus On Your Customers And Lead Your People As Though Their Lives Depend On Your Success.
People
Focus
Investing
In A Bull Market, One Must Avoid The Error Of The Preening Duck That Quacks Boastfully After A Torrential Rainstorm, Thinking That Its Paddling Skills Have Caused It To Rise In The World. A Right-thinking Duck Would Instead Compare Its Position After The Downpour To That Of The Other Ducks On The Pond.
Thinking
Errors
Skills
My Idea Of A Group Decision Is To Look In The Mirror.
Mirrors
Ideas
Decision
You Are Lucky In Life If You Have The Right Heroes. I Advise All Of You, To The Extent You Can, To Pick Out A Few Heroes
Hero
Lucky
Advise
In The Great Majority Of Cases We Simply Do Not Know Enough About The Industry Or Company To Come To Sensible Judgments-in That Situation We Pass.
Majority
Judgment
Enough
In Our View, Though, Investment Students Need Only Two Well-taught Courses-how To Value A Business, And How To Think About Market Prices. Your Goal As An Investor Should Simply Be To Purchase, At A Rational Price, A Part Interest In An Easily-understandable Business Who's Earnings Are Virtually Certain To Be Materially Higher Five, Ten And Twenty Years From Now.
Thinking
Two
Views
If You Have A Great Manager, You Want To Pay Him Very Well.
Want
Pay
Great Men
I Have A House That I Bought 55 Years Ago. It's Warm In The Winter; It's Cool In The Summer. It Has Everything I Wanted, Plus It Has All Kinds Of Good Memories. Like My Kids, I Have Good Thoughts About That. I Can't Imagine Living Any Better.
Summer
Memories
Kids
In Economics, You Always Want To Ask 'and Then What?'
Insightful
Investing
Want
If You Want To Soar Like An Eagle In Life, You Can't Be Flocking With The Turkeys.
Eagles
Turkeys
Want
The Most Dangerous Distractions Are The Ones You Love, But That Don’t Love You Back.
Love You
Distraction
Dangerous
Be Fearful When There Is Greed And Be Greedy When There Is Fear.
Greed
Greedy
Fearful
Making Money Isn't The Backbone Of Our Guiding Purpose; It Is The By-product Of Our Guiding Purpose.
Purpose
Making Money
Backbone
Outstanding Long-term Results Are Produced Primarily By Avoiding Dumb Decisions, Rather Than By Making Brilliant Ones.
Long
Decision
Dumb
I Choose To Work With Every Single Person That I Work With. That Ends Up Being The Most Important Factor. I Don't Interact With People I Don't Like Or Admire. That's The Key. It's Like Marrying.
Keys
People
Important
Money Is Not Everything. Make Sure You Earn A Lot Before Speaking Such Nonsense.
Investing
Nonsense
First Come The Innovators, Then Come The Imitators, Then Come The Idiots.
Investing
Firsts
Idiot
Charlie [munger] And I Are Not Big Fans Of Resumes. Instead, We Focus On Brains, Passion And Integrity.
Integrity
Passion
Focus
You Should Invest In A Business That Even A Fool Can Run, Because Someday A Fool Will.
Running
Fool
Someday
If I Taught A Class, On My Final Exam I Would Take An Internet Company And Ask, 'how Much Is This Company Worth?' Anyone Who Would Answer, I Would Flunk.
Class
Finals
Answers
Stocks Of Companies Selling Commodity-like Products Should Come With A Warning Label: "competition May Prove Hazardous To Human Wealth".
Competition
May
Labels
We Always See Shifts In Employment. If You Think About It, If You Go Back To 1800, It Took 80 Percent Of The Labor Force To Produce Enough Food For The Country. Now It Takes Less Than 3 Percent. Well, The Truth Is That Market Systems Move People Around.
Country
Moving
Thinking
Most Business Mistakes Are Irreversible Setbacks, But You Get Another Chance. There Are Two Things In Life That You Don't Get Another Chance At - Marrying The Wrong Person And What You Do With Your Children.
Children
Mistake
Things In Life
I Know The Country Works Extremely Well. You Know, But When It Isn't Clogged Up.
Country
Wells
Knows
Getting Fired Can Produce A Particularly Bountiful Payday For A Ceo. Indeed, He Can 'earn' More In That Single Day, While Cleaning Out His Desk, Than An American Worker Earns In A Lifetime Of Cleaning Toilets. Forget The Old Maxim About Nothing Succeeding Like Success: Today, In The Executive Suite, The All-too-prevalent Rule Is That Nothing Succeeds Like Failure.
Toilets
Today
Succeed
When You Get To My Age, You’ll Measure Your Success In Life By How Many Of The People You Want To Have Love You Actually Do Love You. That’s The Ultimate Test Of How You’ve Lived Your Life.
Love You
People
Age
We Look For Things I Can Understand. A Lot Of Businesses I Don't Understand.
Looks
I Can
We Only Want To Link Up With People Whom We Like, Admire, And Trust. ... We Do Not Wish To Join With Managers Who Lack Admirable Qualities, No Matter How Attractive The Prospects Of Their Business. We've Never Succeeded In Making A Good Deal With A Bad Person.
People
Wish
Quality
I Mean, They Were Getting The Mortgage Of Some Guy In Omaha, You Know, Securitized A Couple Of Times. I Mean He Had All These - They Had All These Types From Wall Street, You Know, And They Had Advanced Degrees, And They Look Very Alert, And They Came With These - They Came With These Things That Said Gamma And Alpha And Sigma And All That. And All I Can Say Is Beware Of Geeks, You Know, Bearing Formulas. They've Heard That In Europe.
Wall
Couple
Mean
Over The Years, Charlie [munger, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman] And I Have Observed Many Accounting-based Frauds Of Staggering Size. Few Of The Perpetrators Have Been Punished; Many Have Not Even Been Censured. It Has Been Far Safer To Steal Large Sums With Pen Than Small Sums With A Gun.
Gun
Years
Vices
House Prices Just Soared Beyond - Beyond Reason In Many Places And They Got Financed In Silly Ways, And People Lied About Loans, All Kinds Of Accesses Entered Into It. But That Is What - That Is The Single Biggest Cause Of Why We're Here.
Silly
People
House
I Will Do Anything That Is Basically Covered By The Law To Reduce Berkshire's Tax Rate. For Example, On Wind Energy, We Get A Tax Credit If We Build A Lot Of Wind Farms. That's The Only Reason To Build Them. They Don't Make Sense Without The Tax Credit.
Wind Farms
Law
Energy
Is Management Rational?
Investing
Management
Rational
There Is No Perfect Mathematical Formula For Pricing A Business.
Perfect
Mathematical
Formulas
Other Guys Read Playboy. I Read Annual Reports.
Guy
Annual Reports
Playboy
Either They're Trying To Con You Or They're Trying To Con Themselves.
Trying
I Mean, You Know, You're Not Going To Change The Human Animal. And The Human Animal Really Doesn't Get A Lot Smarter.
Mean
Animal
Humans
The Problem With Commodities Is That You Are Betting On What Someone Else Would Pay For Them In Six Months. The Commodity Itself Isn't Going To Do Anything For You....it Is An Entirely Different Game To Buy A Lump Of Something And Hope That Somebody Else Pays You More For That Lump Two Years From Now Than It Is To Buy Something That You Expect To Produce Income For You Over Time.
Years
Games
Two
Our Marketable Equities Tell Us By Their Operating Results - Not By Their Daily, Or Even Yearly, Price Quotations - Whether Our Investments Are Successful. The Market May Ignore Business Success For A While, But Eventually Will Confirm It.
Successful
Business Success
Investing
I Asked Him What He Wanted To Do For His Career, And He Replied That He Wanted To Go Into A Particular Field, But Thought He Should Work For Mckinsey For A Few Years First To Add To His Resume. To Me That's Like Saving Sex For Your Old Age. It Makes No Sense.
Sex
Years
Careers
It's Got To Be The Best Intellectual Exercise Out There. You're Seeing Through New Situations Every Ten Minutes. In The Stock Market You Don't Base Your Decisions On What The Market Is Doing, But On What You Think Is Rational. Bridge Is About Weighing Gain/loss Ratios. You're Doing Calculations All The Time.
Loss
Exercise
Thinking
An Argument Is Made That There Are Just Too Many Question Marks About The Near Future; Wouldn't It Be Better To Wait Until Things Clear Up A Bit? You Know The Prose: "maintain Buying Reserves Until Current Uncertainties Are Resolved," Etc. Before Reaching For That Crutch, Face Up To Two Unpleasant Facts: The Future Is Never Clear And You Pay A Very High Price For A Cheery Consensus. Uncertainty Actually Is The Friend Of The Buyer Of Long-term Values.
Two
Long
Waiting
Derivatives Are Like Sex. It's Not Who We're Sleeping With, It's Who They're Sleeping With That's The Problem.
Sex
Sleep
Derivatives
Risk Comes From Not Knowing What You Are Doing So Wide Diversification Is Only Required When Investors Are Ignorant. You Only Have To Do A Very Few Things In Your Life So Long As You Don't Do Too Many Things Wrong.
Knowing
Long
Risk
A Pin Lies In Wait For Every Bubble And When The Two Eventually Meet, A New Wave Of Investors Learns Some Very Old Lessons.
Lying
Two
Waiting
Anyone 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.
Believe
Careers
Long
I Was Lucky Enough To Be Born In A Time And Place Where Society Values My Talent, And Gave Me A Good Education To Develop That Talent, And Set Up The Laws And The Finanical System To Let Me Do What I Love Doing-and Make A Lot Of Money Doing It. The Least I Can Do Is Help Pay For All That.
Law
Pay
Lucky
The Best Thing That Happens To Us Is When A Great Company Gets Into Temporary Trouble...we Want To Buy Them When They're On The Operating Table.
Business
Investing Money
Tables
The Secret To Happiness Is Having Low Expectations.
Expectations
Secret
Lows
We Really Can Say No In 10 Seconds Or So To 90%+ Of All The Things That Come Along Simply Because We Have These Filters.
Filters
Investing
Seconds
When We Own Portions Of Outstanding Businesses With Outstanding Managements, Our Favorite Holding Period Is Forever.
Business
Investing Money
Forever
I Think The Fdic Was One Of The Great Inventions Of The American.
Thinking
Great Inventions
Invention
Of The Billionaires I Have Known, Money Just Brings Out The Basic Traits In Them. If They Were Jerks Before They Had Money, They Are Simply Jerks With A Billion Dollars.
Money
Business
Dollars
The Reaction Of Weak Management To Weak Operations Is Often Weak Accounting.
Business
Management
Weak
I Have No Idea On Timing. It’s Easier To Tell What Will Happen Than When It Will Happen. I Would Say That What Is Going On In Terms Of Trade Policy Is Going To Have Very Important Consequences.
Ideas
Important
Investing
Much Success Can Be Attributed To Inactivity. Most Investors Cannot Resist The Temptation To Constantly Buy And Sell.
Temptation
Investing
Buffets
I Sent One E-mail In My Life. I Sent It To Jeff Raikes At Microsoft, And It Ended Up In Court In Minneapolis, So I Am One For One.
Microsoft
Mail
Minneapolis
Generally, We Have Translated Greater Output In The Few Hours Of Work Per Week Over The Last Century. And That's A Good Trend Of The Future. But We Do Have To Have A System That, As Output Of Goods And Services Keeps Increasing Per Capita, That It Takes Care Of The People Who Are Willing To Work And Really Are Not Getting By Very Well With A Family On A 40-hour Week.
People
Care
Week
The First Rule Is Not To Lose. The Second Rule Is Not To Forget The First Rule.
Business
Loss
Investing
Never Depend On Single Income. Make Investment To Create A Second Source.
Inspirational
Success
Money
I Am Not In The Business Of Predicting General Stock Market Of Business Fluctuations. If You Think I Can Do This, Or Think It Is Essential To An Investment Program, You Should Not Be In The Partnership.
Thinking
Essentials
Investment
Diversification Is A Protection Against Ignorance. It Makes Very Little Sense For Those Who Know What They're Doing.
Ignorance
Littles
Investing
I Have Got This Letter Which Actually Goes Out The Day After I Die. It Has Already Been Written. And It Says That: "yesterday I Died". And Then It Says: "that's Bad News For Me, But It's Not Bad News For You, The Shareholders Of Berkshire". And Then I Go On And Explain What Is Going To Happen. I Know That Is One Time When They Will Be Really Interested In Hearing From Me.
Yesterday
News
Goes On
We Will Reject Interesting Opportunities Rather Than Over-leverage Our Balance Sheet.
Opportunity
Interesting
Balance
If You Were At Lehman, The Same Thing Happened. If You Were At Aig, The Shareholders Are Getting Creamed On These Things. And Those Shareholders Are Not Just A Bunch Of Big Shots In Wall Street. Those Are Pension Funds, And Those Are Investors All Over The Country. I Wouldn't Worry Too Much About That. Justice Won't Be Perfect On It.
Country
Wall
Perfect
Investing Is Not As Tough As Being A Top-notch Bridge Player. All It Takes Is The Ability To See Things As They Really Are.
Player
Bridges
Investing
[w]e Think The Very Term 'value Investing' Is Redundant. What Is 'investing' If It Is Not The Act Of Seeking Value At Least Sufficient To Justify The Amount Paid? Consciously Paying More For A Stock Than Its Calculated Value -- In The Hope That It Can Soon Be Sold For A Still-higher Price -- Should Be Labeled Speculation (which Is Neither Illegal, Immoral Nor -- In Our View -- Financially Fattening).
Thinking
Views
Investing
What We Really Want To Do Is Buy Businesses That We Would Be Happy To Own Forever.
Forever
Would Be
Want
Diversification May Preserve Wealth, But Concentration Builds Wealth.
Concentration Of Wealth
Investing
May
I Find That The Standard Of Living Does Not Go Up In Proportion With The Cost Of Living. The Trick In Life Is To Do Things That Are Fun All The Time.
Fun
Cost Of Living
Doe
I Don't Really Think That, As A Society, We [americans] Want To Confer Blessings On Generation After Generation Who Contribute Nothing To Society, Simply Because Somebody In The Far Distant Past Happened To Amass A Great Sum Of Wealth.
Blessing
Past
Thinking
I Get To Do What I Like To Do Every Single Day Of The Year.
Years
Investing
Buffets
How Do You Beat Bobby Fischer? You Play Him At Any Game But Chess. I Try To Stay In Games Where I Have An Edge.
Games
Play
Trying
The Much-maligned Idle Rich Have Received A Bad Rap: They Have Maintained Their Wealth While Many There Is Scarcely An Instance Of A Man Who Has Made A Fortune By Speculation And Kept It. Andrew Carnegie Of The Energetic Rich, Aggressive Real Estate Operators, Corporate Acquirers, Oil Drillers, Etc. Have Their Fortunes Disappear.
Real
Rap
Men
If We Start Deciding, Based On Guesses Or Emotions, Whether We Will Or Won't Participate In A Business Where We Should Have Some Long Run Edge, We're In Trouble.
Running
Should Have
Long
Stocks Are The Only Thing That People Are Happy To Buy When The Price Goes Up.
People
In A Difficult Business, No Sooner Is One Problem Solved Than Another Surfaces - Never Is There Just One Cockroach In The Kitchen.
Kitchen
Cockroaches
Problem
The Stock Market Is A Wonderfully Efficient Mechanism For Transferring Wealth From The Impatient To The Patient.
Patient
Wealth
Efficient
The Optimum Portfolio Depends On The Various Expectations Of Choices Available And The Degree Of Variance In Performance Which Is Tolerable. The Greater The Number Of Selections, The Less Will Be The Average Year-to-year Variation In Actual Versus Expected Results. Also, The Lower Will Be The Expected Results, Assuming Different Choices Have Different Expectations Of Performance.
Average
Years
Numbers
Do What You Would Do For Free, Having Passion For What You Do Is The Most Important Thing.
Passion
Important
Passion For What You Do
We Make Investment Decisions Based On Our Evaluation Of The Most Profitable Combination Of Probabilities.
Decision
Evaluation
Investment
First, Many In Wall Street - A Community In Which Quality Control Is Not Prized - Will Sell Investors Anything They Will Buy.
Wall
Community
Quality
Never Risk What You Have And Need For What We Don't Have And Don't Need.
Risk
Needs
I'll Tell You Why I Like The Cigarette Business. It Cost A Penny To Make. Sell It For A Dollar. It's Addictive. And There's A Fantastic Brand Loyalty.
Loyalty
Smoking
Dollars
The Smarter The Journalists Are, The Better Off Society Is.
Journalist
Smarter
Better Off
I'll Bring My Tax Returns; You Bring Yours. I'll Meet You Anytime Anywhere.
Return
Taxes
Tax Returns
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.
Jobs
Writing
Intelligent
Suppose That An Investor You Admire And Trust Comes To You With An Investment Idea. This Is A Good One, He Says Enthusiastically. I'm In It, And I Think You Should Be, Too.
Business
Thinking
Ideas
The Greatest Investment A Young Person Can Make Is In Their Own Education, In Their Own Mind. Because Money Comes And Goes. Relationships Come And Go. But What You Learn Once Stays With You Forever.
Forever
Mind
Investment
Buy Into A Company Because You Want To Own It, Not Because You Want The Stock To Go Up.
Investing Money
Want
Buffets
What Motivates Most Gold Purchasers Is Their Belief That The Ranks Of The Fearful Will Grow ... As 'bandwagon' Investors Join Any Party, They Create Their Own Truth - For A While.
Party
Gold
Belief
You Should Look At Stocks As Small Pieces Of Business.
Looks
Pieces
Should
You Really Don't Need Leverage In This World Much. If You're Smart, You're Going To Make A Lot Of Money Without Borrowing. I've Never Borrowed A Significant Amount Of Money In My Life. Never. Never Will. I've Got No Interest In It.
Smart
Would Be
Needs
Money Will Not Change How Healthy You Are Or How Many People Love You.
Life
Love You
People
We All Make Mistakes. If You Can't Make Mistakes, You Can't Make Decisions. I've Made A Lot Bigger Mistakes Myself.
Mistake
Decision
Made
In My View, [the Trade Deficit] Will Create Political Turmoil At Some Point...pretty Soon, I Think There Will Be A Big Adjustment.
Thinking
Views
Political
Activity Is The Enemy Of Investment Returns.
Enemy
Investing
Return
I Mean, Hank Paulson Is In There [ Treasury] At The Wrong Time, Probably Shouldn't Have Taken The Job. He's A Friend Of Mine. But He Knows Markets, He Knows Corporations' Work, He Knows Money, And He's Got The Interests Of The Country At Heart.
Country
Jobs
Taken
As I Have Mentioned Before, We Cannot Make The Same Sort Of Money Out Of Permanent Ownership Of Controlled Businesses That Can Be Made From Buying And Reselling Such Businesses, Or From Skilled Investment In Marketable Securities. Nevertheless, They Offer A Pleasant Long Term Form Of Activity (when Conducted In Conjunction With High Grade, Able People) At Satisfactory Rates Of Return.
Long
People
Able
You've Got The Right - You've Got A Wonderful Person With Sheila Bair, Most Of The Viewers Have Never Heard Of Sheila Bair. [she] Has Taken Eight Percent Of The Deposits In The United States And Seamlessly Moved Those Over To Sound Institutions Which In Turn Have Gotten More Capital, Ended Up, It's Been A Magnificent Job.she'll Never Get A Golden Parachute Or Any Severance Pay Or Anything. She's Done A Great Job. We've Got Some Great Public Servants. We Have I Think The Right People In There To Get The Job Done, And Then They Need More Tools.
Jobs
Taken
Thinking
If You're Extremely Rich, And You Have Got Children, My Theory Was, You Give Them Enough So They Can Do Anything, But Not Enough So They Can Do Nothing.
Children
Giving
Rich
Yeah, We Don't Consider Many Stupid Things. I Mean, We Get Rid Of 'em Fast...just Getting Rid Of The Nonsense -- Just Figuring Out That If People Call You And Say, 'i've Got This Great, Wonderful Idea', You Don't Spend 10 Minutes Once You Know In The First Sentence That It Isn't A Great, Wonderful Idea...don't Be Polite And Go Through The Whole Process.
Stupid
Mean
Ideas
The Happiest People Do Not Necessarily Have The Best Things. They Simply Appreciate The Things They Have.
People
Appreciate
Best Things
When Berkshire Hathaway Laid Out Three Billion Dollars For Ge Today, We Didn't Spend It, We Invested It. When The Federal Government Buys The Mortgages, They're Not Spending It, They're Investing It. Now, They're Investing It In Distress Type Assets But They're Buying Them At Distress Prices If They Buy Them At Market. It's The Kind Of Stuff I Love To Do. I Just Don't Have 700 Million. Maybe We Could Go In It Together.
Government
Together
Three
If You Are Not Willing To Own A Stock For 10 Years, Do Not Even Think About Owning It For 10 Minutes.
Thinking
Intelligent
Years
Investors Should Remember That Their Scorecard Is Not Computed Using Olympic-diving Methods: Degree-of-difficulty Doesn't Count. If You Are Right About A Business Whose Value Is Largely Dependent On A Single Key Factor That Is Both Easy To Understand And Enduring, The Payoff Is The Same As If You Had Correctly Analyzed An Investment Alternative Characterized By Many Constantly Shifting And Complex Variables.
Keys
Degrees
Alternatives
Traditional Wisdom Is Long On Tradition And Short On Wisdom.
Long
Investing
Tradition
Earnings Can Be Pliable As Putty When A Charlatan Heads The Company Reporting Them.
Business
Decision
Earning
I'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.
Dad
Home
Kids
Investing Is The Greatest Business In The World Because You Never Have To Swing. You Stand At The Plate; The Pitcher Throws You General Motors At 47! U.s. Steel At 39! And Nobody Calls A Strike On You. There's No Penalty Except Opportunity. All Day You Wait For The Pitch You Like; Then, When The Fielders Are Asleep, You Step Up And Hit It.
Opportunity
Swings
Waiting
A Ceo's Behavior Has A Huge Impact On Managers Down The Line.
Impact
Lines
Behavior
The Most Important Thing In Terms Of Your Circle Of Competence Is Not How Large The Area Of It Is, But How Well You've Defined The Perimeter.
Circles
Important
Term
If At First You Do Succeed, Quit Trying On Investing.
Trying
Investing
Firsts
We've Long Felt That The Only Value Of Stock Forecasters Is To Make Fortune Tellers Look Good. Even Now, Charlie And I Continue To Believe That Short-term Market Forecasts Are Poison And Should Be Kept Locked Up In A Safe Place, Away From Children And Also From Grown-ups Who Behave In The Market Like Children.
Children
Believe
Long
Opportunities Come Infrequently. When It Rains Gold, Put Out The Bucket, Not The Thimble.
Rain
Opportunity
Gold
I Think It's Been, You Know, Kind Of Like A Tragic Play To This Point. But At This Point, I Think It's Clear, And Will Be Clear To The Majority Of The Congress. I Think It's Clear To The American People That There Is Only One Countervailing Force To A World Where Financial Institutions Are Trying To Sell Instruments Every Day And Where Credit Has Dried Up, And That's The United States Treasury.
Thinking
Play
People
We Are In Effect Making A - To Some Extent, Making A Choice Between Future Inflation And Getting Our - Getting Off The Floor. And We're Likely - We're Likely To Have More Inflation In The Future As A Consequence Of The Things We Do To Fight The Present Situation.
Fighting
Choices
Situation
It's Good To Learn From Your Mistakes. It's Better To Learn From Other People's Mistakes.
Mistake
People
Learn From Your Mistakes
Wall Street Is The Only Place That People Ride To In A Rolls Royce To Get Advice From Those Who Take The Subway.
Wall
Investing Money
People
We Have Provided Capital Here With A Couple Of Institutions Recently. The Federal Government Did That In The '30s For The Rfc And I Think There Could Well Be A Proper Role For Government In That.
Couple
Thinking
Government
There Is Nothing Like Writing To Force You To Think And Get Your Thoughts Straight.
Writing
Thinking
Force
I Think Confidence Will Come Back.
Thinking
It Is Not Necessary To Do Extraordinary Things To Get Extraordinary Results.
Motivational
Investing
Buffets
I Certainly Have No Desire To Sell A Good Controlled Business Run By People I Like And Admire, Merely To Obtain A Fancy Price. However, Specific Conditions May Cause The Sale Of One Operating Unit At Some Point.
Running
People
Desire
It's A Good Idea To Review Past Mistakes Before Committing New Ones.
Mistake
Past
Ideas
I Mean, You May Be Very Mad At Some Guy That Walked Away With A Huge Golden Parachute, But That Really Isn't The Important Thing.
Mean
Mad
Guy
My Favorite Time Frame For Holding A Stock Is Forever.
Forever
My Favorite
Cash Combined With Courage In A Time Of Crisis Is Priceless.
Intelligent
Investing
Cash
Does The Business Have A Consistent Operating History?
Doe
Investing
Consistent
You Have To Be Able To Communicate In Life And Probably Schools Underemphasize That. If You Can't Talk To People Or Write, You're Giving Up Your Potential.
Giving Up
Writing
School
Just Look At That Forbes 400. Takes A Billion Three To Get On The Forbes 400 This Year. And The Aggregate Wealth Is Just Staggering. And Those People Are Paying Less Percentage Of Their Total Income To The Federal Government Than Their Receptionists Are. [...] I'll Bet A Million Dollars Against Any Member Of The Forbes 400 Who Challenges - Me That The Average For The Forbes 400 Will Be Less Than The Average Of Their Receptionists.
Government
Average
Years
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?
Mean
America
People
While The Poor And Middle Class Fight For Us In Afghanistan, And While Most Americans Struggle To Make Ends Meet, We Mega-rich Continue To Get Our Extraordinary Tax Breaks.
Struggle
Fighting
Class
With Each Investment You Make, You Should Have The Courage And The Conviction To Place At Least Ten Per Cent Of Your Net Worth In That Stock
Should Have
Investment
Conviction
If You Are A Professional And Have Confidence, Then I Would Advocate Lots Of Concentration.
Concentration
Have Confidence
Ifs
Forecasts Usually Tell Us More Of The Forecaster Than Of The Forecast
Forecasts
We Have A Country Where I Don't Know Whether It's A Million Households A Year Or More, But Good Form.
Country
Years
Form
If You Expect To Be A Net Saver During The Next 5 Years, Should You Hope For A Higher Or Lower Stock Market During That Period? Many Investors Get This One Wrong. Even Though They Are Going To Be Net Buyers Of Stocks For Many Years To Come, They Are Elated When Stock Prices Rise And Depressed When They Fall. This Reaction Makes No Sense. Only Those Who Will Be Sellers Of Equities In The Near Future Should Be Happy At Seeing Stocks Rise. Prospective Purchasers Should Much Prefer Sinking Prices.
Fall
Years
Next
I Checked The Actuarial Tables, And The Lowest Death Rate Is Among Six-year-olds. So I Decided To Eat Like A Six-year-old.
Years
Tables
Six
I Mean There Is No Capital Requirements To It Or Anything Of The Sort. And Basically, I Said There Were Possibly Financial Weapons Of Mass Destruction, And They Had Them. They Destroyed Aig. They Certainly Contributed To The Destruction Of Bear Sterns And Lehman. Although Lehman Had Other Problems, Too.
Mean
Mass Destruction
Weapons
The Patient That's On The Floor With The Cardiac Arrest Is Not Wall Street. It's The American Economy.
Wall
Patient
Economy
The 19th Century Belonged To England, The 20th Century Belonged To The U.s., And The 21st Century Belongs To China. Invest Accordingly.
England
Century
China
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.
Mean
Weekend
Thinking
You're Neither Right Nor Wrong Because Other People Agree With You. You're Right Because Your Facts Are Right And Your Reasoning Is Right - That's The Only Thing That Makes You Right. And If Your Facts And Reasoning Are Right, You Don't Have To Worry About Anybody Else.
People
Worry
Investing
An Investor Should Ordinarily Hold A Small Piece Of An Outstanding Business With The Same Tenacity That An Owner Would Exhibit If He Owned All Of That Business.
Investing
Pieces
Tenacity
I Prefer Liquor Store Robbers With Hungry Kids To Companies That Locate Offshore To Avoid U.s. Taxes.
Kids
Liquor Stores
Hungry
If You Understood A Business Perfectly And The Future Of The Business, You Would Need Very Little In The Way Of A Margin Of Safety. So, The More Vulnerable The Business Is, Assuming You Still Want To Invest In It, The Larger Margin Of Safety You'd Need. If You're Driving A Truck Across A Bridge That Says It Holds 10,000 Pounds And You've Got A 9,800 Pound Vehicle, If The Bridge Is 6 Inches Above The Crevice It Covers, You May Feel Okay, But If It's Over The Grand Canyon, You May Feel You Want A Little Larger Margin Of Safety.
Bridges
Safety
Needs
People Will Always Try To Stop You From Doing The Right Thing If It Is Unconventional.
Learning
People
Environmental
I Did Not Think I Would See The Day When, You Know, An Aig Would Not Be Able To Have Its Checks Clear.
Thinking
Able
Checks
It's Easier To Create Money Than To Spend It.
Easier
Accounting Is The Language Of Business.
Business
Language
Billionaire
What You Really Want To Do In Investments Is Figure Out What's Important And Knowable. If It's Unimportant Or Unknowable You Forget About It.
Important
Want
Forget
If You Don't Find A Way To Make Money While You Sleep, You Will Work Until You Die.
Money
Business
Work
With A Wonderful Business, You Can Figure Out What Will Happen; You Can't Figure Out When It Will Happen. You Don't Want To Focus On When, You Want To Focus On What. If You're Right About What, You Don't Have To Worry About When
Worry
Focus
What If
When The President Of The United States Goes Out At, You Know, 8:00 O'clock In The Morning And Then His Own Party Votes Gets Him 2 To 1 In The House, You Know That Somehow A Message Isn't Getting Out. It Takes Real Leadership.
Morning
Real
Party
You Have Hedge Funds And People Like That Buying These Assets To Yield 15 Or 20 Percent, I Mean, That's The Buyer For These People That Are Trying To Unload Them.
Mean
Yield
People
Derivatives Are Financial Weapons Of Mass Destruction.
Mass Destruction
Investing
Weapons
Of Our 49 Billion, We Haven't Moved Any To Bitcoin
Bitcoin
Billions
Havens
I Don't Want To Hold Out False Hopes That The - By Some Magic Moment, That Things Will Turn Around In A Couple Months Because They Wouldn't, Charlie. I Mean, And It's A Big Mistake To Try And Mislead People.
Couple
Mistake
Mean
A Single Year's Performance Is Of Minor Importance And, Good Or Bad, Should Never Be Taken Seriously.
Taken
Years
Should
Sound Investing Can Make You Very Wealthy If You're Not In Too Big A Hurry
Sound
Investing
Bigs
If You Want A Government That's Going To Do The Things We Ask Our Government To Do, You've Got To Get It From Somebody.
Government
Want
Asks
I Made My First Investment At Age Eleven. I Was Wasting My Life Up Until Then.
Age
Firsts
Investment
It's Easy To Identify Many Investment Managers With Great Recent Records. But Past Results, Though Important, Do Not Suffice When Prospective Performance Is Being Judged. How The Record Has Been Achieved Is Crucial.
Past
Important
Records
This Country Is Going - Be Living Better Ten Years From Now Than It Is Now. It Will Be Living Better In 20 Years From Now Than Ten Years From Now. The Ingredients That Made This Country, You Know, The Miracle Of The World - I Mean We Had A Seven For One Improvement In The Average American Standard Of Living In The 20th Century.
Country
Mean
Average
Trending Author
Jimmy Durante
Jonathan Ames
Rose Wilder Lane
Werner Herzog
Mark Leyner
Pat Cash
Category
Information