Charlie Munger Quotes

You must know the big ideas in the big disciplines and use them routinely—all of them, not just a few

The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more

The first rule of compounding is to never interrupt it unnecessarily

Acknowledging your errors is a very important discipline. And fixing them so they’re not catastrophic is also a very important discipline

If you get into the mental habit of relating what you're reading to the basic structure of the underlying ideas being demonstrated, you gradually accumulate some wisdom

Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean

An idea or a fact is not worth more merely because it is easily available to you

Take a simple idea and take it seriously

A great business at a fair price is superior to a fair business at a great price

The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want

If you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail

You don’t have to pee on an electric fence to learn not to do it

Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome

You don't need to be a genius to succeed. You just need to avoid being a fool

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

The best armor of old age is a well-spent life preceding it

If you don’t allow for self-serving bias in the conduct of others, you’re, again, a fool

There are worse situations than drowning in cash and sitting, sitting, sitting. I remember when I wasn’t awash in cash – and I don’t want to go back

Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up

Envy is a really stupid sin because it's the only one you could never possibly have any fun at

Take a simple idea and take it seriously

You should take the high road, because it's less crowded

The big money is not in the buying or the selling, but in the waiting

Part of what you must learn is how to handle mistakes and new facts that change the odds

The number one rule is to play it safe and try to avoid big mistakes

The wise man never assumes he’s always right; he checks, he double checks, and when in doubt, he asks

You don’t have to have an opinion on every subject

I did not succeed in life by intelligence. I succeeded because I have a long attention span

The wise man looks for what he can learn from everyone he meets

I think part of the popularity of Berkshire Hathaway is that we look like people who have found a trick. It's not brilliance. It's just avoiding stupidity

Acknowledging what you don't know is the dawning of wisdom

It’s not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid

I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines

Spend less than you make; always be saving something

You want to deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end

If something is too hard, we move on to something else. What could be simpler than that

The world is not driven by greed. It's driven by envy

It is usually best to simplify problems by first assuming away complicating factors and focusing on the key issue

Most people are too fretful, they worry too much. Success means being very patient, but aggressive when it's time

The habit of committing far more time to learning and thinking than to doing is no accident

Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant

The game of life is the game of everlasting learning. At least it is if you want to win

It’s not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid

It's remarkable how much intelligence you can develop if you try

I think that, every time you see the word EBITDA, you should substitute the word 'bullshit' earnings

The wise man looks for what he can learn from everyone

The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more

The wise man acts knowing that nothing is certain

The whole secret of life is to find out what's best to do and then do it

Take a simple idea and take it seriously

The wise man looks for what he can learn from everyone

A lot of people with high IQs are terrible investors because they’ve got terrible temperaments

Those who keep learning will keep rising in life

It’s not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid

It is not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid

The wise man looks for what he can learn from everyone

The wise man looks for what he can learn from everyone

The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more

The wise man looks for what he can learn from everyone he meets

The best way to get what you want in life is to deserve what you want

The difference between a good business and a bad business is that good businesses throw up one easy decision after another, easy decisions. Bad businesses throw up one tough decision after another

A lot of people with high IQs are terrible investors because they’ve got terrible temperaments

People calculate too much and think too little

All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there

The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting

Take a simple idea and take it seriously

It’s not greed that drives the world, but envy

The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more

Invert, always invert

Spend less than you make; always be saving something. Put it into a tax-deferred account. Over time, it will begin to amount to something. This is such a no-brainer

If you want to guarantee yourself a lifetime of misery, be sure to marry someone with the intent of changing their behavior

The great lesson in life is to get the incentives right

You don’t have to be brilliant, only a little wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long time

It’s not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid

Invert, always invert: Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backward

I try to get rid of people who always confidently answer questions about which they don't have any real knowledge

The wise ones bet heavily when the world offers them that opportunity. They bet big when they have the odds. And the rest of the time, they don't. It's just that simple

I try to get rid of people who always confidently answer questions about which they don’t have any real knowledge

If you want to go through life like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest, be my guest

If you're not a little confused by what's going on, you're not paying attention

People calculate too much and think too little

The wise man always has more questions than answers

It’s not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid

The desire to get rich fast is pretty dangerous

It takes character to sit with all that cash and do nothing. I didn't get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities

You want to deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end

The wise man looks for what he can learn from everyone

People chronically misappraise the limits of their own knowledge. That particularly happens when you are in love and you get married; you overestimate how much you know about the person

If you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail

Three things ruin people: drugs, liquor, and leverage

It’s very hard to get rich if your head isn’t working right

Those who keep learning, will keep rising in life

The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging

The desire to get rich fast is pretty dangerous

You want to be very careful with intense ideologies. You can always tell when you’re in trouble when you look at what you firmly believe, and it doesn’t hang together with reality

The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting

It is not necessary to have an opinion on everything

It’s remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent

The iron rule of life is that only 20% of people can be in the top fifth

Often, the best solution to a problem is to invert it and consider the opposite

The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want

The best thing a human can do is to help another human know more

Warren [Buffett] and I have not learned how to solve difficult business problems. What we have learned is to avoid them

All I want to know is where I’m going to die so I’ll never go there

Invert, always invert

Life, in part, is like a poker game, wherein you have to learn to quit sometimes when holding a much loved hand

If you keep learning all the time you have a huge advantage

If you want to go through life like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest, be my guest

Take a simple idea and take it seriously

Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up

It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent

You can progress only when you learn the method of learning

All intelligent investing is value investing, acquiring more than you are paying for. You must value the business in order to value the stock

Three things ruin people: drugs, liquor, and leverage

The wise ones bet heavily when the world offers them that opportunity. They bet big when they have the odds. And the rest of the time, they don't. It's just that simple

If you're not a little confused by what's going on, you're not paying attention

Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up

The iron rule of life is that only 20% of people can be in the top fifth

It is always sound business to take any available net revenue and invest it in all practical improvements

You don’t have to pee on an electric fence to learn not to do it

If you're not a little confused by what's going on, you're not paying attention

You don’t have to be brilliant, only a little wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long time

It’s much easier to avoid stupidity than to seek brilliance

The fundamental algorithm of life — repeat what works

The wise man takes into account both what he knows and what he doesn’t know

It takes character to sit with all that cash and do nothing. I didn't get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities

Assiduity is the ability to sit on your ass and do nothing until a great opportunities presents itself

The wise man looks for what he can learn from everyone

You're looking for three things, generally, in a person: intelligence, energy, and integrity. And if they don't have the last one, don't even bother with the first two

Those who keep learning, will keep rising in life