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Customer Quotes by Warren Buffett

240 Customer quotes by Warren Buffett

All Customer quotes Warren Buffett’s page

To invest successfully over a lifetime does not require a stratospheric IQ, but a sound intellect and steady temperament. The quotes explain that pessimism often drives low prices and that investors should focus on what is important and knowable, ignoring the rest. They also advise buying whole businesses instead of renting stocks, and remind that market swings eventually mirror intrinsic value.

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... the best way to own common stocks is through an index fund.

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Uncertainty is the friend of the buyer of long term values.

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Calculate "owner earnings" to get a true reflection of value.

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The advice "you never go broke taking a profit" is foolish.

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Focus on return on equity, not earnings per share.

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The Fed is the greatest hedge fund in history.

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Optimism.. is the enemy of the rational buyer

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When investing, pessimism is your friend, euphoria the enemy.

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

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If AIG had tried to unwind their derivatives books. I don't know. It would have hit every institution in the world.

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

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The greatest Enemies of the Equity investor are Expenses and Emotions.

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Lethargy, bordering on sloth should remain the cornerstone of an investment style.

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When Berkshire buys common stock, we approach the transaction as if we were buying into a private business.

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Wall Street makes its money on activity. You make your money on inactivity.

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Fund consultants like to require style boxes such as "long-short," "macro," "international equities." At Berkshire our only style box is "smart."

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I've argued with the senators and congressmen I've talked to. You don't want to be too little too late. If you buy…

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I think any time you couple the term "Wall Street" with "bailout" or something like that, you know - I don't like…

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If you aren't willing to own a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes. Put together…

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I don't want to be on the other side of the table from the customer. I was never selling anything that I…

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Our policy is to concentrate holdings. We try to avoid buying a little of this or that when we are only lukewarm…

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The key to investing is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society, or how much it will grow,…

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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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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 mean, they were getting the mortgage of some guy in Omaha, you know, securitized a couple of times. I mean he…

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The commission of the investment sins listed above is not limited to 'the little guy.' Huge institutional investors, viewed as a group,…

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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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When Berkshire Hathaway laid out three billion dollars for GE today, we didn't spend it, we invested it. When the Federal government…

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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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A pin lies in wait for every bubble. And when the two eventually meet, a new wave of investors learns some very…

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But, surprise - none of these blockbuster events made the slightest dent in Ben Graham's investment principles. Nor did they render unsound…

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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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I am out of step with present conditions. When the game is no longer played your way, it is only human to…

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One observer commenting on security analysts over forty stated: "They know too many things that are no longer true." As long as…

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You should look at stocks as small pieces of business.

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Investing is simple, but not easy.

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Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.

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The three most important words in investing...Margin of Safety.

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I think the FDIC was one of the great inventions of the American.

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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…