Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I mean the truth is, I've never had it so good in terms of taxes. I am paying the lowest tax rate that I've ever paid in my life.
In a difficult business, no sooner is one problem solved than another surfaces - never is there just one cockroach in the kitchen.
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.
The typical large company has a compensation committee, They don't look for Dobermans on that committee, they look for chihuahuas.
In my view, [the trade deficit] will create political turmoil at some point...Pretty soon, I think there will be a big adjustment.
You shouldn't own common stocks if a 50 per cent decrease in their value in a short period of time would cause you acute distress.
The nature of democracy is such that when there's - there'll be revulsion, obviously, towards - that's never going to happen again.
The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.
When asked how he became so successful in investing, Buffett answered: 'we read hundreds and hundreds of annual reports every year.
Personally, I really hope I can treat everyone equally. I think I have done a pretty good job so far but I know I can do it better.
I tell college students, when you get to be my age you will be successful if the people who you hope to have love you, do love you.
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.
There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we've got a system that allows them to do it.
If you knew what was going to happen in the economy, you still wouldn't necessarily know what was going to happen in the stock market.
When we went crazy, and we did go crazy on residential real estate, it set things in motion that just - the dominoes started toppling.
The 19th century belonged to England, the 20th century belonged to the U.S., and the 21st century belongs to China. Invest accordingly.
There is seldom just one cockroach in the kitchen. You know, you turn on the light and, all of sudden, they all start scurrying around.
You can't stand to see your neighbor getting rich. You know you're smarter than he is and he's doing these things and he's getting rich.
Time is your friend, impulse is your enemy. Take advantage of compound interest and don't be captivated by the siren song of the market.
The truth is, everything that has happened in my life... that I thought was a crushing event at the time, has turned out for the better.
Look for 3 things in a person. Intelligence, Energy, & Integrity. If they don't have the last one, don't even bother with the first two.
Stocks of companies selling commodity-like products should come with a warning label: "Competition may prove hazardous to human wealth".
You have no ability, if you're a financial institution and you're threatened with criminal prosecution, you have no ability to negotiate.
I think the most important factor in getting out of the recession actually is just the regenerative capacity of - of American capitalism.
If you own the only newspaper in town, up until the last five years or so, you have pricing power and you didn't have to go to the office.
If, when making a stock investment, you're not considering holding it at least ten years, don't waste more than ten minutes considering it.
You have to turn over a lot of rocks to find those little anomalies. You have to find the companies that are off the map - way off the map.
An IPO is like a negotiated transaction - the seller chooses when to come public - and it's unlikely to be a time that's favourable to you.
What's hot today isn't likely to be hot tomorrow. The stock market reverts to fundamental returns over the long run. Don't follow the herd.
I am a huge bull on this country. We will not have a double-dip recession at all. I see our businesses coming back almost across the board.
I read annual reports of the company I'm looking at and I read the annual reports of the competitors - that is the main source of material.
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.
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
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.
Cash never makes us happy, but it's better to have the money burning a hole in Berkshire's pocket than resting comfortably in someone else's.
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.
It takes 150 years to build an investment bank and only five minutes to convince you to sell me preferred stock in it at a 10% interest rate.
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.
If you look at the Forbes 400, they are paying a lower rate, accounting payroll taxes, than their secretary or - whomever around their office.
My job is essentially just corralling more and more and more facts and information, and occasionally seeing whether that leads to some action.
Resolution Trust Company was set up to liquidate a bunch of assets that the government had inherited because the savings and loans went broke.
Failing conventionally is the route to go; as a group, lemmings may have a rotten image, but no individual lemming has ever received bad press
I think the rest of the country should be paying less, the 95 percent that [Barack] Obama talks about or maybe even a little higher than that.
John Maynard Keynes essentially said, don't try and figure out what the market is doing. Figure out a business you understand, and concentrate.
I don't want to be on the other side of the table from the customer. I was never selling anything that I didn't believe in myself or use myself.
Money to some extent sometimes let you be in more interesting environments. But it can't change how many people love you or how healthy you are.
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.
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.
In other words, the percentage change in book value in any given year is likely to be reasonably close to that year's change in intrinsic value.
Fund consultants like to require style boxes such as "long-short," "macro," "international equities." At Berkshire our only style box is "smart."