Warren Buffett quotes - page 5

There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning. (Warren Buffett)
After all, you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out. View quote
Warren Buffett
It's nice to have a lot of money, but you know, you don't want to keep it around forever. I prefer buying things. Otherwise, it's a little like saving sex for your old age. View quote
Warren Buffett
Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future. View quote
Warren Buffett
I do know that when I am 60, I should be attempting to achieve different personal goals than those which had priority at age 20. View quote
Warren Buffett
You've gotta keep control of your time, and you can't unless you say no. You can't let people set your agenda in life. View quote
Warren Buffett
People always ask me where they should go to work, and I always tell them to go to work for whom they admire the most. View quote
Warren Buffett
Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill. View quote
Warren Buffett
I learned to go into business only with people whom I like, trust, and admire. View quote
Warren Buffett
Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble. View quote
Warren Buffett
[Gold] gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head. (Warren Buffett)
I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful. View quote
Warren Buffett
An investor should act as though he had a lifetime decision card with just twenty punches on it. View quote
Warren Buffett
The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say "no” to almost everything. View quote
Warren Buffett
We're more comfortable in that kind of business. It means we miss a lot of very big winners. But we wouldn't know how to pick them out anyway. It also means we have very few big losers - and that's quite helpful over time. We're perfectly willing to trade away a big payoff for a certain payoff. View quote
Warren Buffett
Upon leaving [the derivatives business], our feelings about the business mirrored a line in a country song: "I liked you better before I got to know you so well." View quote
Warren Buffett
Those who attended [the annual meeting] last year saw your Chairman pitch to Ernie Banks. This encounter proved to be the titanic duel that the sports world had long awaited. After the first few pitches - which were not my best, but when have I ever thrown my best? - I fired a brushback at Ernie just to let him know who was in command. Ernie charged the mound, and I charged the plate. But a clash was avoided because we became exhausted before reaching each other. View quote
Warren Buffett
The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball. They know that overstaying the festivities-that is, continuing to speculate in companies that have gigantic valuations relative to the cash they are likely to generate in the future-will eventually bring on pumpkins and mice. But they nevertheless hate to miss a single minute of what is one helluva party. Therefore, the giddy participants all plan to leave just seconds before midnight. There's a problem, though: They are dancing in a room in which the clocks have no hands. View quote
Warren Buffett
We have tried occasionally to buy toads at bargain prices with results that have been chronicled in past reports. Clearly our kisses fell flat. We have done well with a couple of princes - but they were princes when purchased. At least our kisses didn't turn them into toads. And, finally, we have occasionally been quite successful in purchasing fractional interests in easily-identifiable princes at toad-like prices. View quote
Warren Buffett
Of course, Charlie and I can identify only a few Inevitables, even after a lifetime of looking for them. Leadership alone provides no certainties: Witness the shocks some years back at General Motors, IBM and Sears, all of which had enjoyed long periods of seeming invincibility. Though some industries or lines of business exhibit characteristics that endow leaders with virtually insurmountable advantages, and that tend to establish Survival of the Fattest as almost a natural law, most do not. Thus, for every Inevitable, there are dozens of Impostors, companies now riding high but vulnerable to competitive attacks. View quote
Warren Buffett
I like to study failure, actually. My partner says, "I want to know where I'll die so I'll never go there." We want to see what has caused businesses to go bad. The biggest thing that kills them is complacency.... The danger would always be that you rest on your laurels. (Warren Buffett)
But now for the final exam: If you expect to be a net saver during the next five years, should you hope for a higher or lower stock market during that period? Many investors get this one wrong. Even though they are going to be net buyers of stocks for many years to come, they are elated when stock prices rise and depressed when they fall. In effect, they rejoice because prices have risen for the "hamburgers" they will soon be buying. This reaction makes no sense. Only those who will be sellers of equities in the near future should be happy at seeing stocks rise. Prospective purchasers should much prefer sinking prices. View quote
Warren Buffett
Look for integrity, intelligence and energy. View quote
Warren Buffett
Just because Charlie and I can clearly see dramatic growth ahead for an industry does not mean we can judge what its profit margins and returns on capital will be as a host of competitors battle for supremacy. At Berkshire we will stick with businesses whose profit picture for decades to come seems reasonably predictable. Even then, we will make plenty of mistakes. View quote
Warren Buffett
I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life. View quote
Warren Buffett