Buffet Quotes

The best of the Oracle of Omaha.

Buffett Quotes on Keeping It Simple

#1 “Never invest in a business you cannot understand.”

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

#3 “I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will.”

#4 “A ham sandwich could run Coca-Cola."

#5 “Beware of geeks bearing formulas.”

#6 "You don't need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ."

#7 “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No.1”

Buffett Quotes on Temperament

#8 "The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect. You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd."

#9 “It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked.”

#10 “Our favorite holding period is forever.”

#11 “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

#12 “An investor should act as though he had a lifetime decision card with just twenty punches on it.”

Buffett Quotes on Value

#13 "Price is what you pay; value is what you get."

#14 "Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful."

#15 “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price, than a fair company at a wonderful price.”

Buffett Quotes on Conduct

#16 "You can't make a good deal with a bad person."

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

Buffett Quotes on Perspective

#18 “In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.”

#19 “If past history was all that is needed to play the game of money, the richest people would be librarians.”

#20 “Failing conventionally is the route to go; as a group, lemmings may have a rotten image, but no individual lemming has ever received bad press”

#21 "In my view, derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal."

Buffett Quotes on Life and Success

#22 “The most important investment you can make is in yourself.”

#23 “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.”

#24 "I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life."

#25 "My life couldn't be happier. In fact, it'd be worse if I had six or eight houses. So, I have everything I need to have, and I don't need any more."