Warren Buffett Quotes (80 Quotes)

The burden of paying Helpers may cause American equity investors, overall, to earn only 80 percent or so of what they would earn if they just sat still and listened to no one.

I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.

I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here.

The point seems to be that Buffett thinks the United States needs to take radical steps, and undergo some pain in the short run, to ensure the longer-term health of the economy. Perhaps there are other solutions that make more sense than mine, ... However, wishful thinking -- and its usual companion, thumb sucking -- is not among them.

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.

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.

Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.

You know, people talk about this being an uncertain time. You know, all time is uncertain. I mean, it was uncertain back in - in 2007, we just didn't know it was uncertain. It was - uncertain on September 10th, 2001. It was uncertain on October 18th, 1987, you just didn't know it.

Right now, the rest of the world owns 3 trillion US more of us than we own of them.

I recently sold a house in Laguna for 3.5 million. It was on about 2,000 square feet of land, maybe a twentieth of an acre, and the house might cost about 500,000 if you wanted to replace it. So the land sold for something like 60 million an acre.

We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.

In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.

An educational approach to money and investing struck me as a very good idea. People do form behavior habits very young on matters of money. I get calls every day from people who are in a financial hole.

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.

Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.

Warren, isn't it fair to say that if we did have an opinion, we wouldn't tell him

I think the most important factor in getting out of the recession actually is just the regenerative capacity of - of American capitalism.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.

The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.

I just think that - when a country needs more income and we do, we're only taking in 15 percent of GDP, I mean, that - that - when a country needs more income, they should get it from the people that have it.

You need an outstanding manager - you can define that in many ways... but you are looking for the best player out there. We are looking for the best player in this kind of business in the world.

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.

Great investment opportunities come around when excellent companies are surrounded by unusual circumstances that cause the stock to be misappraised.

You have to learn to understand your partner, to be tolerant, sympathetic, encouraging. Those are skills that are not bad to have in life.

We believe that according the name 'investors' to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a 'romantic.'

It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked.

Our favorite holding period is forever.

Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.

The war on terrorism can never be won.

Despite the lack of precedent, a negative coupon security seemed possible in the present interest rate environment ... I asked Goldman Sachs to create such an instrument and they responded promptly with the innovative security being announced today.

What the wise do in the beginning, fools do in the end.

Beware of geeks bearing formulas.

If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.

If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.

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.

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.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

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.

The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we'll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on.

The 3 percent overall federal tax rate I would pay -- if a Berkshire dividend were to be tax free -- seems a bit light.

I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.

Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.

Eddie is a very smart guy, but putting Kmart and Sears together is a tough hand.

We're still in a recession. We're not gonna be out of it for a while, but we will get out.

The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.

The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth.

Economic medicine that was previously meted out by the cupful has recently been dispensed by the barrel. These once unthinkable dosages will almost certainly bring on unwelcome after-effects. Their precise nature is anyone's guess, though one likely consequence is an onslaught of inflation.

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.