Best 813 quotes of Warren Buffett on MyQuotes

I can do anything I want, basically, as long as it doesn't involve athletic ability, or something like that.

I can't promise results, but I can promise a common destiny.

I certainly do believe anyone engaged in the management of money should have a standard of measurement, and that both he and the party whose money is managed should have a clear understanding why it is the appropriate standard, what time period should be utilized, etc.

I certainly have no desire to sell a good controlled business run by people I like and admire, merely to obtain a fancy price. However, specific conditions may cause the sale of one operating unit at some point.

I checked the actuarial tables, and the lowest death rate is among six-year-olds. So I decided to eat like a six-year-old.

I choose to work with every single person that I work with. That ends up being the most important factor. I don't interact with people I don't like or admire. That's the key. It's like marrying.

I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection.

I did not think I would see the day when, you know, an AIG would not be able to have its checks clear.

I do not believe in inheriting your position in society based on which womb you come from... I think a rich person should leave his children enough so they can do anything, but not enough so they can do nothing.

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.

I don't have my diploma from the University of Nebraska hanging on my office wall, and I don't have my diploma from Columbia up there either-but I do have my Dale Carnegie graduation certificate proudly displayed.

I don't measure my life by the money I've made. Other people might, but certainly don't.

I don't need 15 houses. Owning real estate doesn't mean much to me. I don't like to think about things like that. I don't need 12 boats, or even the world's largest boat with a crew of 80. I'd have to take care of them, to worry about them. I get a lot more fun out of life without all the bells and whistles.

I don't read economic forecasts. I don't read the funny papers.

I don't think it would be crazy to have a model or an entity model on the Reconstruction Finance Corp.

I don't think you can have a better secretary of the Treasury than Hank Paulson.

I don't try and guess when to get in and out of the market. I have owned stocks consistently since 1942. I owned the - I was buying stocks the day before the election. I was buying the same stocks the day after election. And if Hillary had been elected, it would have been the same thing.

I don't want to be on the other side of the table from the customer. I was never selling anything that I didn't believe in myself or use myself.

I don't want to give a lecture to this body that's out there. You know, I mean, having had the heart attack, I want to get it back functioning. And as a practical matter, I mean if you were Bear Stearns, and you were a shareholder, you know, you lost 90 to 95 percent of your money. A good many lost their jobs. They lost very cushy lives, many of them.

I don't want to hold out false hopes that the - by some magic moment, that things will turn around in a couple months because they wouldn't, Charlie. I mean, and it's a big mistake to try and mislead people.

If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.

If AIG had tried to unwind their derivatives books. I don't know. It would have hit every institution in the world.

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.

If book knowledge made great investors, than the librarians would all be rich.

If horses had controlled investment decisions, there would have been no auto industry.

If I eat 2,700 calories a day, a quarter of that is Coca-Cola.

If I got any good ideas out of that or I think they're good ideas, I'll be glad to contribute them but the system will probably overdo some other things.

If I knew where I was going to want to live the next five or 10 years I would buy a home and I'd finance it with a 30-year mortgage... It's a terrific deal.

I find that the standard of living does not go up in proportion with the cost of living. The trick in life is to do things that are fun all the time.

If I subscribed to the efficient market theory I would still be delivering papers

If I taught a class, on my final exam I would take an Internet company and ask, 'How much is this company worth?' Anyone who would answer, I would flunk.

If I were the treasury secretary or head of the Fed, you know, I would try to scare the hell the out of the private sector and say, you better save this because you're going down with the ship.

If knowing history made you rich, librarians would be billionaires.

If principles can become dated, they're not principles.

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

If the reason for doing something is that everyone else is doing it, it's not a good enough reason.

If the world couldn't see your results, would you rather be thought of as the world's greatest investor but in reality have the world's worst record? Or be thought of as the world's worst investor when you were actually the best?

If this is a war, my side has the nuclear bomb. We have K Street. We have Wall Street. Debbie doesn't have anybody. I want a government that is responsive to the people who got the short straw in life.

If we start deciding, based on guesses or emotions, whether we will or won't participate in a business where we should have some long run edge, we're in trouble.

If, when making a stock investment, you're not considering holding it at least ten years, don't waste more than ten minutes considering it.

If you are a professional and have confidence, then I would advocate lots of concentration.

If you are not willing to own a stock for 10 years, do not even think about owning it for 10 minutes.

If you aren't willing to own a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes. Put together a portfolio of companies whose aggregate earnings march upward over the years, and so also will the portfolio's market value.

If you buy the things you don't need, you will soon be selling the things that you need.

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

If you can eliminate the government as a 39.6% partner, then you will be much better off.

If you can tell me who your heroes are, I can tell you how you're going to turn out in life.

If you can't read the scoreboard. You don't know the score. If you don't know the score, you can't tell the winners from the losers.

If you don’t feel comfortable making a rough estimate of the asset’s future earnings, just forget it and move on. No one has the ability to evaluate every investment possibility. But omniscience isn’t necessary; you only need to understand the actions you undertake.

If you don't feel comfortable owning something for 10 years, then don't own it for 10 minutes.