Warren Buffett Quotes

The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with the 130 IQ

The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything

Habits are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken

You can’t make a good deal with a bad person

Cash combined with courage in a crisis is priceless

The light can at any time go from green to red without pausing at yellow

Beware the investment activity that produces applause; the great moves are usually greeted by yawns

Honesty is a very expensive gift. Don’t expect it from cheap people

I am a better investor because I am a businessman, and a better businessman because I am an investor

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

It’s only when the tide goes out that you discover who’s been swimming naked

Look for three things in a person: intelligence, energy, and integrity. If they don't have the last one, don't even bother with the first two

Never invest in a business you cannot understand

The most important investment you can make is in yourself

If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians

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

Never depend on a single income. Make investment to create a second source

If you aren’t willing to own a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes

Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago

The trouble with investing is that all of your mistakes are there to be seen right away, and not only by you

I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will

Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway

Never ask a barber if you need a haircut

The best thing I did was to choose the right heroes

It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction

Investing is laying out money now to get more money back in the future

If you’re in the luckiest 1% of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99%

Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them

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

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it

I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute

It’s better to be approximately right than precisely wrong

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong

I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think

It’s better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price

In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run it is a weighing machine

Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken

When the world is going crazy, you want to have cash

Success in investing doesn’t correlate with I.Q. once you’ve ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing

The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective

Not doing what we love in the name of greed is very poor management of our lives

You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant

Our favorite holding period is forever

Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future

The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient

I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted it for a minute

The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken

Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for ten years

I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful

It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get

There’s no use running if you’re on the wrong road

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield

It’s not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results

There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult

Predicting rain doesn’t count. Building arks does

The best investment you can make is in your own abilities. Anything you can do to develop your own abilities or business is likely to be more productive

Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken

What we learn from history is that people don’t learn from history

In the world of business, the people who are most successful are those who are doing what they love

The rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield

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

The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing

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

When management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact

Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing

Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you how you’ll turn out

You do things when the opportunities come along. I've had periods in my life when I've had a bundle of opportunities come along, and I've had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I'll do something. If not, I won't do a damn thing

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

I learned to go into business only with people whom I like, trust, and admire

We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful

Accounting is the language of business

After all, you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out

No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant

You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital

Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for ten years

Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre

Diversification is protection against ignorance. It makes little sense if you know what you are doing

Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful

It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results

Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for ten years

Our favorite holding period is forever

It’s only when you combine sound intellect with emotional discipline that you get rational behavior

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

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong

The stock market is designed to transfer money from the active to the patient

Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing

If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians

You can’t make a good deal with a bad person

What the wise do in the beginning, fools do in the end

The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective

Games are won by players who focus on the playing field, not by those whose eyes are glued to the scoreboard

Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them

The best chance to deploy capital is when things are going down

Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing

It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price

You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out

Prediction is very difficult—especially if it’s about the future

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong

The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken

If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought

Our approach is very much profiting from lack of change rather than from change