It’s good to learn from your mistakes. It’s better to learn from other people‘s mistakes.

The rich invest in time, the poor invest in money.

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

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

I think that both parties should declare the debt limit as a political weapon of mass destruction which can’t be used. I mean, it is silly to have a country that has 237 years building up its reputation and then have people threaten to tear it down because they’re not getting some other matter.

If you want to soar like an eagle in life, you can’t be flocking with the turkeys.

The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect.

Americans are in a cycle of fear which leads to people not wanting to spend and not wanting to make investments, and that leads to more fear. We’ll break out of it. It takes time.

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

Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.

I bought a company in the mid-’90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I’ve made lots of dumb decisions. That’s part of the game.

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

It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.

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.

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

Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

The only way to get love is to be lovable. It’s very irritating if you have a lot of money. You’d like to think you could write a check: ‘I’ll buy a million dollars‘ worth of love.’ But it doesn’t work that way. The more you give love away, the more you get.

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.

Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

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

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.

I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.

If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.

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.

Trust is like the air we breathe–when it’s present, nobody really notices; when it’s absent, everybody notices.

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who‘s been swimming naked.

If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end – people like myself – should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.

The best investment you can make, is an investment in yourself… The more you learn, the more you’ll earn.

We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.

Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.

Our favorite holding period is forever.

Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it’s not going to get the business.

You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.

If you cannot control your emotions, you cannot control your money.

There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.

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

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.

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.’

Whatever you like to do, make it a hobby and whatever the world likes to do, make it a business.

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.

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

There are three kinds of people: 1. Innovators. 2. Imitators. 3. Idiots.

We’ve used up a lot of bullets. And we talk about stimulus. But the truth is, we’re running a federal deficit that’s 9 percent of GDP. That is stimulative as all get out. It’s more stimulative than any policy we’ve followed since World War II.

Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.

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.

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

Look for 3 things in a person. Intelligence, Energy, & Integrity.
If they don’t have the last one, don’t even bother with the first two.

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

If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need.

It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.

Beware of geeks bearing formulas.

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

You don’t need to have extraordinary effort to achieve extraordinary results. You just need to do the ordinary, everyday things exceptionally well.

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

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 secret to happiness is having low expectations.

Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.

Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.

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