We don’t get paid for being busy, we get paid for being right.
Over the years, a number of very smart people have learned the hard way that a long string of impressive numbers multiplied by a single zero always equals zero.
The value of a business is the cash it’s going to produce in the future.
It is easier to rationalize than it is to be rational.
John Maynard Keynes essentially said, don’t try and figure out what the market is doing. Figure out a business you understand, and concentrate.
I’ve often felt there might be more to be gained by studying business failures than business successes.
I tell college students, when you get to be my age you will be successful if the people who you hope to have love you, do love you.
Either they’re trying to con you or they’re trying to con themselves.
For some reason people take their cues from price action rather than from values. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
I’d rather have a $10 million business making 15 per cent than a $100 million business making 5 per cent.
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.
I like to buy things I can understand. I do a lot of research on things.
I look for businesses in which I think I can predict what they’re going to look like in ten to fifteen years time. Take Wrigley’s chewing gum. I don’t think the internet is going to change how people chew gum.
I put heavy weight on certainty. It’s not risky to buy securities at a fraction of what they’re worth.
In a difficult business, no sooner is one problem solved than another surfaces – never is there just one cockroach in the kitchen.
Cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day.
Knowing the edge of your competency is important. If you think you know more than you do, you will get in trouble.
Nevertheless, as circumstances presently appear, I feel substantially greater size is more likely to harm future results than to help them. This might not be true for my own personal results, but it is likely to be true for your results.
The purpose of life is to be loved by as many people as possible among those you want to have love you.
You don’t need to have extraordinary effort to achieve extraordinary results. You just need to do the ordinary, everyday things exceptionally well.