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Business Quotes by Warren Buffett

166 Business quotes by Warren Buffett

All Business quotes Warren Buffett’s page

Imagine a simple business that even an idiot could run and still succeed. The quotes explain that investing needs a sound mind, not a genius IQ, and that finding an outstanding company at a fair price beats chasing bargains. They also warn that weak management often hides behind weak accounting.

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Valuing a business is part art and part science.

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The extraordinary business does not require good management.

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Our favorite holding period is forever.

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Does the business have favourable long term prospects?

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You should look at stocks as small pieces of business.

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The rich invest in time, the poor invest in money.

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We like to buy businesses, but we don't like to sell them.

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Never invest in a business you can't understand

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You don't need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the…

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Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.

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Buy companies with strong histories of profitability and with a dominant business franchise.

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You should invest in a business that even a fool can run, because someday a fool will.

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Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business.

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Don't invest in pieces of papers (stocks), invest in great businesses underlying them

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Problems in a company are like cockroaches in the kitchen. You will never find just one

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In a commodity business, it's very hard to be smarter than your dumbest competitor.

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Americans are in a cycle of fear which leads to people not wanting to spend and not wanting to make investments, and…

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Stocks of companies selling commodity-like products should come with a warning label: "Competition may prove hazardous to human wealth".

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I read annual reports of the company I'm looking at and I read the annual reports of the competitors - that is…

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When a management team with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation…

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The true investor welcomes volatility ... a wildly fluctuating market means that irrationally low prices will periodically be attached to solid businesses.

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I'll tell you why I like the cigarette business. It cost a penny to make. Sell it for a dollar. It's addictive.…

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They say the chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. The chains…

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Most business mistakes are irreversible setbacks, but you get another chance. There are two things in life that you don't get another…

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The banking business is no favorite of ours. When assets are twenty times equity - a common ratio in this industry -…

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I have pledged - to you, the rating agencies and myself - to always run Berkshire with more than ample cash. We…

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I won't close down a business of subnormal profitability merely to add a fraction of a point to our corporate returns. I…

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In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen…

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So some guy may know how to make money in cocoa beans, but I don't so I just let him have that.…

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If you own a wonderful business...the best thing to do is keep it. All you're going to do is trade your wonderful…

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To invest successfully, you need not understand beta, efficient markets, modern portfolio theory, option pricing or emerging markets. You may, in fact,…

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The most common cause of low prices is pessimism - some times pervasive, some times specific to a company or industry. We…

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The idea that you try to time purchases based on what you think business is going to do in the next year…

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Banking is very good business if you don't do anything dumb.

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Two rules: 1. Preserve the principal 2. When in doubt, see Rule #1.

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Does the business have a consistent operating history?

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Never invest in a business you don't understand.

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Look for companies with high profit margins.

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A hyperactive stock market is the pickpocket of enterprise.

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Accounting is the language of business.

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Other authors on Business

More by Warren Buffett

To invest successfully over a lifetime does not require a stratospheric IQ, unusual business insights, or inside information. What's needed is a sound intellectual…

“Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”

Making money isn't the backbone of our guiding purpose; it is the by-product of our guiding purpose.

We set no volume goals in our insurance business generally-and certainly not in reinsurance-as virtually any volume can be achieved if profitability standards are…

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…

It is better to point out your own mistakes than have somebody else do it.

I've read about all the sales today. If you're an auto dealer, you're feeling it. If you're a furniture retailer like we are, you're…

I was lucky enough to be born in a time and place where society values my talent, and gave me a good education to…

The most common cause of low prices is pessimism - some times pervasive, some times specific to a company or industry. We want to…

The reaction of weak management to weak operations is often weak accounting.

What you really want to do in investments is figure out what's important and knowable. If it's unimportant or unknowable you forget about it.

I don't measure my life by the money I've made. Other people might, but certainly don't.

I mean the truth is, I've never had it so good in terms of taxes. I am paying the lowest tax rate that I've…

The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect. You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the…

Investors, of course, can, by their own behavior make stock ownership highly risky. And many do. Active trading, attempts to "time" market movements, inadequate…