Everybody’s got a different circle of competence. The important thing is not how big the circle is. The important thing is staying inside the circle.
The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.
Invest in as much of yourself as you can, you are your own biggest asset by far.
Our goal is to find an outstanding business at a sensible price, not a mediocre business at a bargain price.
Like most trends, at the beginning, it’s driven by fundamentals. At some point, speculation takes over. What the wise man does in the beginning, the fool does in the end.
Very successful people say no to almost everything.
Always invest for the long term.
My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest.
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.
Accounting is the language of business.
Never depend on a single income. Make investments to create a second source.
A prediction about the direction of the stock market tells you nothing about where stocks are headed, but a whole lot about the person doing the predicting.
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.
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.
Focus on return on equity, not earnings per share.
Investment must be rational; if you can’t understand it, don’t do it.
It’s much easier to stay out of trouble now than to get out of trouble later.
We don’t read other people’s opinions. We want to get the facts, and then think.
For every sale you miss because you’re too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you’re not enthusiastic enough.
If you have made a mistake cut your losses as quickly as possible.