Warren Buffett quotes - page 4

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)
If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy. View quote
Warren Buffett
You can't make a good deal with a bad person. View quote
Warren Buffett
I wouldn't mind going to jail if I had three cellmates who played bridge. View quote
Warren Buffett
You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant. View quote
Warren Buffett
I eat like a normal 6-year-old, but if you look at the mortality statistics, I mean, 6-year-olds don't die very often. View quote
Warren Buffett
Most companies are saddled with institutional constraints. A company's history, for example, may commit it to an industry that now offers limited opportunity. A more common problem is a shareholder constituency that pressures its manager to dance to Wall Street's tune. Many CEOs resist, but others give in and adopt operating and capital-allocation policies far different from those they would choose if left to themselves. View quote
Warren Buffett
Instead, we try to apply Aesop's 2,600-year-old equation to opportunities in which we have reasonable confidence as to how many birds are in the bush and when they will emerge (a formulation that my grandsons would probably update to "A girl in a convertible is worth five in the phonebook."). View quote
Warren Buffett
I just read and read and read. ... I have always enjoyed reading. View quote
Warren Buffett
Putting people into homes, though a desirable goal, shouldn't be our country's primary objective. Keeping them in their homes should be the ambition. View quote
Warren Buffett
If you invested in a very low cost index fund - where you don't put the money in at one time, but average in over 10 years - you'll do better than 90% of people who start investing at the same time. (Warren Buffett)
Our future rates of gain will fall far short of those achieved in the past. Berkshire's capital base is now simply too large to allow us to earn truly outsized returns. If you believe otherwise, you should consider a career in sales but avoid one in mathematics (bearing in mind that there are really only three kinds of people in the world: those who can count and those who can't). View quote
Warren Buffett
If I was running $1 million today, or $10 million for that matter, I'd be fully invested. Anyone who says that size does not hurt investment performance is selling. The highest rates of return I've ever achieved were in the 1950s. I killed the Dow. You ought to see the numbers. But I was investing peanuts then. It's a huge structural advantage not to have a lot of money. I think I could make you 50% a year on $1 million. No, I know I could. I guarantee that. View quote
Warren Buffett
There's a whole bunch of things I don't know a thing about - I just stay away from those. So, I stay within what I call my circle of competence. View quote
Warren Buffett
I've reluctantly discarded the notion of my continuing to manage the portfolio after my death - abandoning my hope to give new meaning to the term "thinking outside the box." View quote
Warren Buffett
More than 99% of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or at death. Measured by dollars, this commitment is large. In a comparative sense, though, many individuals give more to others every day. Millions of people who regularly contribute to churches, schools, and other organizations thereby relinquish the use of funds that would otherwise benefit their own families. The dollars these people drop into a collection plate or give to United Way mean forgone movies, dinners out, or other personal pleasures. In contrast, my family and I will give up nothing we need or want by fulfilling this 99% pledge. Moreover, this pledge does not leave me contributing the most precious asset, which is time. Many people, including - I'm proud to say - my three children, give extensively of their own time and talents to help others. Gifts of this kind often prove far more valuable than money. View quote
Warren Buffett
I violated the Noah rule: Predicting rain doesn't count; building arks does. View quote
Warren Buffett
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 financial 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. View quote
Warren Buffett
In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you. View quote
Warren Buffett
I like thinking big. I always have. To me it's very simple: if you're going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big. View quote
Warren Buffett
I've worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions. (Warren Buffett)
Criticize by category - praise by name. View quote
Warren Buffett
Buy into a company because you want to own it, not because you want the stock to go up. View quote
Warren Buffett
All day you wait for the pitch you like; then when the fielders are asleep, you step up and hit it. View quote
Warren Buffett
If you're in the luckiest one per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent. View quote
Warren Buffett