Warren Buffett Speaks: 25 Best Warren Buffett Quotes on His Strategies, Investments, and Cheap Suits

He’s called the Oracle of Omaha, and for good reason: not only is he one of the best investors of all time, but he’s also a witty communicator. If you read one ofBerkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder letters (BTW–I love their Web site design!), you’ll feel like Warren Buffett is one of the Good Guys–someone you can trust, someone who will tell it like it is, and someone who’s always willing to laugh with you at mistakes.

Here are twenty-five awesome quotes from the man himself. I find these quotes to be especially comforting when you’re ‘financially depressed’–after all, he views a market slump as a good thing!–so I hope these can remind everyone that we just need to do the basics, and we”ll be OK. Be a consistent net saver, buy the market through ups and downs, be a decent human being, and rest easy.

On Investing

1. “Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.”
2. “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”
3. “Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”
4. “We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”
5. “Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful”.”

On Success

1. “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.”
2. “The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.”
3. “You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas 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.”
4. “Can you really explain to a fish what it’s like to walk on land? One day on land is worth a thousand years of talking about it, and one day running a business has exactly the same kind of value.”
5. “You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.”

On Helping Others

1. “If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.”
2. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
3. “I don’t have a problem with guilt about money. The way I see it is that my money represents an enormous number of claim checks on society. It’s like I have these little pieces of paper that I can turn into consumption. If I wanted to, I could hire 10,000 people to do nothing but paint my picture every day for the rest of my life. And the GNP would go up. But the utility of the product would be zilch, and I would be keeping those 10,000 people from doing AIDS research, or teaching, or nursing. I don’t do that though. I don’t use very many of those claim checks. There’s nothing material I want very much. And I’m going to give virtually all of those claim checks to charity when my wife and I die.”
4. “It’s class warfare, my class is winning, but they shouldn’t be.”
5. “My family won’t receive huge amounts of my net worth. That doesn’t mean they’ll get nothing. My children have already received some money from me and Susie and will receive more. I still believe in the philosophy – FORTUNE quoted me saying this 20 years ago – that a very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything but not enough to do nothing.”

On Life

1. “Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.”
2. “We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.”
3. “You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.”
4. “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
5. “A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.”

Funny Ones

1. “A girl in a convertible is worth five in the phonebook.”
2. “When they open that envelope, the first instruction is to take my pulse again.”
3. “We believe that according the name ‘investors’ to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a ‘romantic.’”
4. “When a 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.”
5. “In the insurance business, there is no statute of limitation on stupidity.”

More good sources for Warren Buffet quotes:

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Warren Buffett Quotes

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
Warren Buffett

Beware of geeks bearing formulas.
Warren Buffett

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

Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.
Warren Buffett

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

I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here.
Warren Buffett

I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.
Warren Buffett

I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.
Warren Buffett

I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.
Warren Buffett

If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.
Warren Buffett

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

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

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.
Warren Buffett

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.
Warren Buffett

It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
Warren Buffett

Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.
Warren Buffett

Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.
Warren Buffett

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.
Warren Buffett

Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.
Warren Buffett

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

Our favorite holding period is forever.
Warren Buffett

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
Warren Buffett

Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.
Warren Buffett

Risk is a part of God's game, alike for men and nations.
Warren Buffett

Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.
Warren Buffett

Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.
Warren Buffett

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

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

The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.
Warren Buffett

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

The only time to buy these is on a day with no "y" in it.
Warren Buffett

The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves-and the better the teacher, the better the student body.
Warren Buffett

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

Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.
Warren Buffett

Value is what you get.
Warren Buffett

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

We believe that according the name 'investors' to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a 'romantic.'
Warren Buffett

We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.
Warren Buffett

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

When a 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.
Warren Buffett

When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.
Warren Buffett

Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful".
Warren Buffett

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

You do things when the opportunities come along. I've had periods in my life when I've had a bundle of ideas 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.
Warren Buffett

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

Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business.
Warren Buffett

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