101 Famous Quotes by Warren Buffett on Investing

1.

Never invest in a business you cannot understand.

2.

Always invest for the long term.

3.

No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You cant
produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.

4.

Whether were talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise
when it is marked down.

5.

What we learn from history is that people dont learn from history.

6.

Buy a business, dont rent stocks.

7.

You dont need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy
with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ.

8.

We have long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortunetellers look good.

9.

A prediction about the direction of the stock market tells you nothing about
where stocks are headed, but a whole lot about the person doing the predicting.

10. Someones sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long
time ago.
11. I really like my life. Ive arranged my life so that I can do what I want.
12. We will only do with your money what we would do with our own.
13. If you dont feel comfortable owning something for 10 years, then dont own it for
10 minutes.
14. I am a better investor because I am a businessman and a better businessman
because I am an investor.
15. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
16. The Stock Market is designed to transfer money from the Active to the Patient.
17. Stop trying to predict the direction of the stock market, the economy, interest
rates, or elections.

18. 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 ten years.
19. By periodically investing in an index fund, the know-nothing investors can
actually outperform most investment professionals.
20. I have pledged to always run Berkshire with more than ample cash I will not
trade even a nights sleep for the chance of extra profits.
21. The best business returns are usually achieved by companies that are doing
something quite similar today to what they were doing five or ten years ago.
22. Investing is laying out money now to get more money back in the future.
23. The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You dont have to swing at
everything you can wait for your pitch.
24. Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive
that even a mediocre sale gives good results.
25. I dont look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step
over.
26. For some reason, people take their cues from price action rather than from
values. What doesnt work is when you start doing things that you dont
understand or because they worked last week for somebody else. The dumbest
reason in the world to buy a stock is because its going up.
27. Never give up searching for the job that youre passionate about. Try to find the
job youd have if you were independently rich. Forget about the pay. When youre
associating with the people that you love, doing what you love, it doesnt get any
better than that.
28. We dont get paid for activity, just for being right. As to how long we will wait,
well wait indefinitely.
29. As Buffet said in the speech, Hes not looking at quarterly earnings projections,
hes not looking at next years earnings, hes not thinking about what day of the
week it is, he doesnt care what investment research from any place says, hes not
interested in price momentum, volume or anything. Hes simply asking: What is
the business worth?
30. Buy companies with strong histories of profitability and with a dominant business
franchise.

31. Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get
interested is when no one else is. You cant buy what is popular and do well.
32. Our approach is very much profiting from lack of change rather than from
change. With Wrigley chewing gum, its the lack of change that appeals to me. I
dont think it is going to be hurt by the Internet. Thats the kind of business I like.
33. When asked how he became so successful in investing, Buffett answered: we
read hundreds and hundreds of annual reports every year.
34. When a management team with a reputation for brilliance joins a business with
poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains
intact.
35. I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them.
Because sooner or later, one will.
36. 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.
37. Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for
those who know what theyre doing.
38. Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they
are doing.
39. Youre neither right nor wrong because other people agree with you. Youre right
because your facts are right and your reasoning is right thats the only thing that
makes you right. And if your facts and reasoning are right, you dont have to worry
about anybody else.
40. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think
about that, youll do things differently.
41. The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.
42. Only buy something that youd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut
down for 10 years.
43. I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are
greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.
44. Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said,
Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.
45. Our favorite holding period is forever.

46. Investing is laying out money now to get more money back in the future.
47. The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging.
48. Money is not everything. Make sure you earn a lot before speaking such
nonsense.
49. 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.
50. Risk comes from not knowing what youre doing.
51. Unless you can watch your stock holding decline by 50% without becoming
panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market.
52. The critical investment factor is determining the intrinsic value of a business and
paying a fair or bargain price.
53. Investors making purchases in an overheated market need to recognize that it
may often take an extended period for the value of even an outstanding company
to catch up with the price they paid.
54. Its better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose
behavior is better than yours and youll drift in that direction.
55. Risk can be greatly reduced by concentrating on only a few holdings.
56. It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.
57. An investor should ordinarily hold a small piece of an outstanding business with
the same tenacity that an owner would exhibit if he owned all of that business.
58. Diversification may preserve wealth, but concentration builds wealth.
59. Great investment opportunities come around when excellent companies are
surrounded by unusual circumstances that cause the stock to be misappraised.
60. You wont keep control of your time, unless you can say no. You cant let other
people set your agenda in life.
61. In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
62. If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.

63. Cash never makes us happy, but its better to have the money burning a hole in
Berkshires pocket than resting comfortably in someone elses.
64. Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls-Royce to get advice
from those who take the subway.
65. A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
66. I never buy anything unless I can fill out on a piece of paper my reasons. I may
be wrong, but I would know the answer to that Im paying $32 billion today for
the Coca Cola Company because If you cant answer that question, you
shouldnt buy it. If you can answer that question, and you do it a few times, youll
make a lot of money.
67. The investor of today does not profit from yesterdays growth.
68. I knew a lot about what I did when I was 20. I had read a lot, and I aspired to
learn everything I could about the subject.
69. You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you dont do
too many things wrong.
70. Its far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a
wonderful price.
71. You ought to be able to explain why youre taking the job youre taking, why
youre making the investment youre making, or whatever it may be. And if it cant
stand applying pencil to paper, youd better think it through some more. And if you
cant write an intelligent answer to those questions, dont do it.
72. Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from
folly rather than participate in it.
73. An investor needs to do very few things right as long as he or she avoids big
mistakes.
74. Do a lot of reading. on how to determine the value of a business
75. Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three
qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you dont have the first, the
other two will kill you. You think about it; its true. If you hire somebody without
[integrity], you really want them to be dumb and lazy.
76. Only when the tide goes out do you discover whos been swimming naked.

77. The fact that people will be full of greed, fear, or folly is predictable. The
sequence is not predictable.
78. Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.
79. I do not like debt and do not like to invest in companies that have too much debt,
particularly long-term debt. With long-term debt, increases in interest rates can
drastically affect company profits and make future cash flows less predictable.
80. We will reject interesting opportunities rather than over-leverage our balance
sheet.
81. I always knew I was going to be rich. I dont think I ever doubted it for a minute.
82. Turnarounds seldom turn.
83. If at first you do succeed, quit trying on investing.
84. I dont measure my life by the money Ive made. Other people might, but
certainly dont.
85. Anything can happen in stock markets and you ought to conduct your affairs so
that if the most extraordinary events happen, that youre still around to play the
next day.
86. You shouldnt own common stocks if a 50 per cent decrease in their value in a
short period of time would cause you acute distress.
87. With few exceptions when a manager with a reputation for brilliance tackles a
business with a reputation for poor economics, it is the reputation of the business
which remains intact.
88. The business schools reward complex behavior more than simple behavior, but
simple behavior is more effective.
89. Its not debt per say that overwhelms an individual corporation or country. Rather
it is a continuous increase in debt in relation to income that causes trouble.
90. A great investment opportunity occurs when a marvelous business encounters a
one-time huge, but solvable problem.
91. You do not adequately protect yourself by being half awake when other are
sleeping.
92. We like to buy businesses, but we dont like to sell them.

93. Money to some extent sometimes let you be in more interesting environments.
But it cant change how many people love you or how healthy you are.
94. Its us fun being a gorse when the tractor comes along, or the blacksmith when
the car comes along.
95. Enjoy your work and work for whom you admire.
96. With enough insider information and a million dollars, you can go broke in a
year.
97. Read Ben Graham and Phil Fisher read annual reports, but dont do equations
with Greek letters in them.
98. In a commodity business, its very hard to be smarter than your dumbest
competitor.
99. A hyperactive stock market is the pickpocket of enterprise.
100.Valuing a business is part art and part science.
Chains of habits are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be
broken.

101.