An investor will succeed by coupling good business judgment with an ability to insulate his thoughts and behavior from the super-contagious emotions that swirl about the marketplace.
If you can eliminate the government as a 39.6% partner, then you will be much better off.
The greatest Enemies of the Equity investor are Expenses and Emotions.
Much success can be attributed to inactivity. Most investors cannot resist the temptation to constantly buy and sell.
All day you wait for the pitch you like; then when the fielders are asleep, you step up and hit it.
We do not have, nor have had, and never will have an opinion about where the stock market, interest rates, or business activity will be a year from now.
If at first you do succeed, quit trying in investing.
My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest.
We can afford to lose money – even a lot of money. But we can’t afford to lose reputation – even a shred of reputation.
The Fed is the greatest hedge fund in history.
Managers thinking about accounting issues should never forget one of Abraham Lincoln’s favorite riddles: How many legs does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg? The answer: Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.
Let only individuals contribute – with sensible limits per election. Otherwise, we are well on our way to ensuring that a government of the moneyed, by the moneyed, and for the moneyed shall not perish from the earth.
We will reject interesting opportunities rather than over-leverage our balance sheet.
In other words, the percentage change in book value in any given year is likely to be reasonably close to that year’s change in intrinsic value.
It’s good to learn from your mistakes. It’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes.
Intrinsic value can be defined simply: It is the discounted value of the cash that can be taken out of a business during its remaining life.
Buy a cross section of American industry, and if a cross section of American industry doesn’t work, certainly trying to pick the little beauties here and there isn’t going to work either.
I knew a lot about what I did when I was 20. I had read a lot, and I aspired to learn everything I could about the subject.
Emotional makeup is more important than technical skill.
Good profits simply are not inconsistent with good behavior.