Warren Buffett books
Warren Buffet quotes
Value investing

WARREN BUFFETT QUOTES

"A good business is not always a good purchase - although it’s a good place to look for one." — Warren Buffett

"A policy of portfolio concentration may well decrease risk if it raises the intensity with which an investor thinks about a business." — Warren Buffett

"ABCs of business decay: arrogance, bureaucracy, and complacency." — Warren Buffett

"An idiot with a plan can beat a genius without a plan." — Warren Buffett

"An investor should act as though he had a lifetime decision card with just twenty punches on it." — Warren Buffett

“Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.” — Warren Buffett

"Beware the investment activity that produces applause; the great moves are usually greeted by yawns." — Warren Buffett

"Buy a stock the way you would buy a house. Understand and like it such that you’d be content to own it in the absence of any market." — Warren Buffett

“Calling someone who trades actively an investor is like calling a one-night stand a romantic.” — Warren Buffett

"Cash combined with courage in a time of crisis is priceless." — Warren Buffett

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

"Culture, more than rule books, determines how an organisation behaves." — Warren Buffett

"Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction." — Warren Buffett

“Diversification is protection against ignorance. It makes little sense if you know what you are doing.” — Warren Buffett

"Diversification may preserve wealth, but concentration builds wealth." — Warren Buffett

“Do not save what is left after spending; instead spend what is left after saving.” — Warren Buffett

"Do not take yearly results too seriously. Instead, focus on four or five-year averages." — Warren Buffett

“Don’t pass up something attractive today because you think you’ll find something better tomorrow.” — Warren Buffett

“Don’t save what is left after spending; instead spend what is left after saving.” — Warren Buffett

“Don’t take yearly results too seriously. Focus on four or five year averages.” — Warren Buffett

"Everyone knows at least one ‘know-it-all’. If you want to invest well, don’t be a know-it-all." — Warren Buffett

"Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future." — Warren Buffett

“Games are won by players who focus on the playing field – not by those whose eyes are glued to the scoreboard.” — Warren Buffett

"Get something to improve yourself at least 1% each day." — 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

"Having first-rate people on the team is more important than designing hierarchies." — Warren Buffett

"Honesty is a very expensive gift, Don’t expect it from cheap people." — Warren Buffett

"I always knew I'd be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute." — Warren Buffett

“I don’t look to jump over seven-foot bars; I look around for one-foot bars that I can step over.” — Warren Buffett

"I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think." — Warren Buffett

"I learned to go into business only with people whom I like, trust, and admire." — Warren Buffett

“I made my first investment at age eleven.” — 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

"I try to invest in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will." — 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." — Warren Buffett

“I’d be a bum on the street with a tin cup if the markets were always efficient.” — Warren Buffett

"I’ve never believed in risking what my family and friends have and need in order to pursue what they don’t have and don’t need." — Warren Buffett

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

"If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs." — Warren Buffett

"If past history was all that is needed to play the game of money, the richest people would be librarians." — Warren Buffett

“If you aren’t willing to own a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes.” — Warren Buffett

"If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need." — Warren Buffett

"If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die." — 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." — Warren Buffett

"If you’ve got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you’ve got a very good business." — Warren Buffett

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

"In the long run, managements stressing accounting appearance over economic substance usually achieve little of either." — Warren Buffett

"In the world of business, the people who are most successful are those who are doing what they love." — Warren Buffett

"Intensity is the price of excellence." — Warren Buffett

"Invest in companies you believe in." — Warren Buffett

“Invest only in businesses you understand.” — Warren Buffett

“Investing is simple, but not easy.” — Warren Buffett

"Investors should be sceptical of history based models... Beware of geeks bearing formulas." — Warren Buffett

"It is a terrible mistake for investors with long-term horizons to measure their investment ‘risk’ by their portfolio’s ratio of bonds to stocks." — Warren Buffett

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” — Warren Buffett

“It’s better to hang out with people better than you.” — Warren Buffett

"It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked." — Warren Buffett

“Know your circle of competence and stay within it.” — Warren Buffett

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

“Look for companies with durable competitive advantages.” — Warren Buffett

“Managers who want to expand their domain at the expense of owners might better consider a career in government.” — Warren Buffett

“My favorite holding period is forever.” — Warren Buffett

"Never depend on a single income. Make an investment to create a second source." — Warren Buffett

“Never invest in a business you cannot understand.” — Warren Buffett

"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." — Warren Buffett

“No price is too low to ignore a good business.” — Warren Buffett

“Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble.” — Warren Buffett

“Our advantage was attitude: buying good businesses at a large discount.” — Warren Buffett

"Our advantage was attitude. We had learned from Ben Graham that the key to successful investing was buying shares in good businesses at a large discount." — Warren Buffett

"Our favourite holding period is forever." — Warren Buffett

“Over the years, Charlie and I have seen all sorts of bad corporate behaviour, both accounting and operational, induced by the desire of management to meet Wall Street expectations.” — 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." — Warren Buffett

“Price is what you pay; value is what you get.” — Warren Buffett

"Reading could be the BEST addiction one could have." — Warren Buffett

"Remember that the stock market is a manic depressive." — Warren Buffett

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” — Warren Buffett

"Rule No. 1 is never lose money. Rule No. 2 is never forget Rule No. 1." — Warren Buffett

“Rules for investment: If you aren’t willing to own a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes.” — Warren Buffett

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

"Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy." — Warren Buffett

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

"Stay away from the mentality of using the credit card compulsorily and invest on yourself." — Warren Buffett

“Stay within your circle of competence.” — Warren Buffett

"Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you how you’ll turn out to be." — Warren Buffett

"The best chance to deploy capital is when things are going down." — Warren Buffett

“The best investment you can make is in yourself.” — Warren Buffett

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

"The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything." — Warren Buffett

“The goal of the investor should be to purchase businesses that will work for you.” — Warren Buffett

"The key to investing is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society, but rather determining the competitive advantage of any given company and the durability of that advantage." — Warren Buffett

“The more you learn, the more you earn.” — Warren Buffett

"The most important investment you can make is in yourself." — Warren Buffett

“The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect.” — Warren Buffett

"The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging." — Warren Buffett

"The rich invest in time, the poor invest in money." — Warren Buffett

“The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” — Warren Buffett

“The stock market is a manic depressive.” — Warren Buffett

“The three most important words in investing are ‘margin of safety.’” — Warren Buffett

"There comes a time when you ought to start doing what you want. Take a job that you love." — Warren Buffett

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

"Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn’t. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value." — Warren Buffett

“Trust in American ingenuity.” — Warren Buffett

“Trust your temperament.” — 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 don’t have to be smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest." — Warren Buffett

"We never want to count on the kindness of strangers in order to meet tomorrow’s obligations." — 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 others are greedy, be fearful.” — Warren Buffett

"When trillions of dollars are managed by Wall Streeters charging high fees, it will usually be the managers who reap outsized profits, not the clients." — 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." — Warren Buffett

“You don’t have to be an expert on every company, just those in your circle of competence.” — Warren Buffett

"You should never test the depth of the water with both feet." — Warren Buffett

“Do not save what is left after spending; instead spend what is left after saving.” — Warren Buffett

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

“Never depend on a single income. Make investment to create a second source.” — Warren Buffett

“The best investment you can make is in yourself.” — Warren Buffett

“The stock market is designed to transfer money from the Active to the Patient.” — Warren Buffett