Famous Quotes

Quotes by Warren Buffett

• 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.
• 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 buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.
• 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.
• If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.
• If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
• In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
• 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.
• Our favorite holding period is forever.
• Risk is a part of God's game, alike for men and nations.
• Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.
• Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
• The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.
• The only time to buy these is on a day with no 'y' in it.
• 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 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.
• Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.
• We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.
• 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.'
• 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.
• 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.
• Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, 'Too much of a good thing can be wonderful'.
• 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.
• 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.
• Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business.