I’ve seen more people fail because of liquor and leverage – leverage being borrowed money. You really don’t need leverage in this world much. If you’re smart, you’re going to make a lot of money without borrowing.
Cash, though, is to a business as oxygen is to an individual: never thought about when it is present, the only thing in mind when it is absent. When bills come due, only cash is legal tender. Don’t leave home without it.
You pay a very high price in the stock market for a cheery consensus.
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.
Enjoy your work and work for those you admire.
It’s no fun being a horse when the tractor comes along, nor a blacksmith when the car comes along.
My idea of a group decision is to look in the mirror.
We like to buy businesses, but we don’t like to sell them.
I don’t measure my life by the money I’ve made. Other people might, but I certainly don’t.
Very successful people say no to almost everything.
Uncertainty is the friend of the buyer of long term values.
What we learn from history is that people don’t learn from history.
The reaction of weak management to weak operations is often weak accounting.
Always invest for the long term.
When bills come due, only cash is legal tender. Don’t leave home without it.
A diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor a person perfected without trials. Someone is enjoying shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
Inactivity strikes us as intelligent behavior.
A pack of lemmings looks like a group of rugged individualists compared with Wall Street when it gets a concept in its teeth.
The important thing is to keep playing, to play against weak opponents and to play for big stakes.
One’s objective should be to get it right, get it quick, get it out and get it over. Your problem won’t improve with age.