A bull market is like sex. It feels best just before it ends.
Long ago, Ben Graham taught me that.
Sound investing can make you very wealthy if you’re not in too big a hurry.
We’ve seen what about 50% of our human capacity can accomplish. Visualize what 100% can do.
No formula in finance tells you that the moat is 28 feet wide and 16 feet deep. That’s what drives the academics crazy. They can compute standard deviations and betas, but they can’t understand moats.
Gold has two significant shortcomings, being neither of much use nor procreative.
We do not view the company itself as the ultimate owner of our business assets but instead view the company as a conduit through which our shareholders own assets.
When Berkshire buys common stock, we approach the transaction as if we were buying into a private business.
As far as you are concerned, the stock market does not exist. Ignore it.
Is management rational?
Is management candid with the shareholders?
Does management resist the institutional imperative?
Remember that the stock market is manic-depressive.
Focus on return on equity, not earnings per share.
Calculate “owner earnings” to get a true reflection of value.
Growth and value investing are joined at the hip.
That which is not worth doing at all is not worth doing well.
If you hit a hole in one every hole, you wouldn’t play golf for very long.
Focus alone is not enough; putting in the time to commit is also crucial to achieve success.
When asked how he became so successful in investing, Buffett answered: ’we read hundreds and hundreds of annual reports every year.