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World Quotes by Charlie Munger

39 World quotes by Charlie Munger

All World quotes Charlie Munger’s page

A corporate world described as hell without horse sense warns that missing common sense leads to disaster. Munger’s quotes stress earning what you deserve by understanding how human systems really work. They also point out that complexity breeds fraud, so careful track records and honesty matter.

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The world is getting very much more competitive.

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You want to deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end.

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It’s not greed that drives the world, but envy.

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Deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end.

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The wise ones bet heavily when the world offers them that opportunity. They bet big when they have the odds. And the…

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Our job is to find a few intelligent things to do, not to keep up with every damn thing in the world.

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I think track records are very important. If you start early trying to have a perfect one in some simple thing like…

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Bull markets go to people's heads. If you're a duck on a pond, and it's rising due to a downpour, you start…

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It's a finite and very competitive world. All large aggregations of capital eventually find it hell on earth to grow and thus…

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In the 1930s, there was a stretch where you could borrow more against the real estate than you could sell it for.…

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In the corporate world, if you have analysts, due diligence, and no horse sense, you've just described hell.

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Warren is one of the best learning machines on this earth. The turtles who outrun the hares are learning machines. If you…

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The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want. It's such a simple…

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Where you have complexity, by nature you can have fraud and mistakes. You'll have more of that than in a company that…

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...People need to ask, "How do I play the hand that has been dealt me?" The world is not going to give…

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I think people who multitask pay a huge price. They think they're being extra productive, and I think when you multitask so…

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I think that if you have a single payer system and an opt-out for people who want to pay more [for better…

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I don't have the slightest interest in gold. I like understanding what works and what doesn't in human systems. To me that's…

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I got at a very early age, the idea that the safest way to try and get what you want, is to…

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A lot of people think if you just had more process and more compliance -- checks and doublechecks and so forth --…

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Finding a single investment that will return 20% per year for 40 years tends to happen only in dreamland. In the real…

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Obviously if you want to get good at something which is competitive, you have to think about it and practice a lot.…

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The secret to happiness is to lower your expectations. ...that is what you compare your experience with. If your expectations and standards…

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The possibility that stock value in aggregate can become irrationally high is contrary to the hard-form "efficient market" theory that many of…

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We believe that almost all really good investment records will involve relatively little diversification. The basic idea that it was hard to…

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At most corporations if you make an acquisition and it turns out to be a disaster, all the paperwork and presentations that…

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It's not given to human beings to have such talent that they can just know everything about everything all the time. But…

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The world of derivatives is full of holes that very few people are really aware of. It's like hydrogen and oxygen sitting…

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The definition of hell in the legal system is: endless due process and no justice; (in the corporate world) it would be:…

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The tradition of always looking for the answer in the most fundamental way available - that is a great tradition, and it…

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In engineering, people have a big margin of safety. But in the financial world, people don't give a damn about safety. They…

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When we were young, there weren't very many smart people in the investment world. You should have seen the people in the…

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It would be one of the most irritating experiences in the world to do a lot of work to uncover a fraud…

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Even bright people are going to have limited, really valuable insights in a very competitive world when they're fighting against other very…

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I always like it when someone attractive to me agrees with me, so I have fond memories of Phil Fisher. The idea…

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You must know the big ideas in the big disciplines, and use them routinely - all of them, not just a few.…

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I think we have some special talents. That being said, I think it's dangerous to rely on special talents - it's better…

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I believe that we are at or near the apex of a great civilization... In 50-100 years, if we're a poor third…

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We've had the most massive creation of wealth for people a lot younger than those who formerly got wealth in the history…

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More by Charlie Munger

Almost all good businesses engage in 'pain today, gain tomorrow' activities.

If you want good behavior, don't pay on a commission basis. Our judges aren't paid so much a case. We keep them pretty well…

Acquire worldly wisdom and adjust your behavior accordingly. If your new behavior gives you a little temporary unpopularity with your peer group then to…

I think time and time again, in reality, psychological notions and economic notions interplay, and the man who doesn't understand both is a damned…

I have what I call an iron prescription that helps me keep sane when I naturally drift toward preferring one ideology over another and…

The tax code gives you an enormous advantage if you can find some things you can just sit with.

The great lesson in microeconomics is to discriminate between when technology is going to help you and when it's going to kill you. And…

Some years ago one oil company bought a fertilizer company, and every other major oil company practically ran out and bought a fertilizer company.…

They [Mc Donalds] take people and give them a first job, which enables them to get a second job. They do a very good…

What good is envy? It’s the one sin you can’t have any fun at.

We believe that almost all really good investment records will involve relatively little diversification. The basic idea that it was hard to find good…

It is way less certain to be a wonderful business in the future. The threat is alternative mediums of information. Every newspaper is scrambling…

In the corporate world, if you have analysts, due diligence, and no horse sense, you've just described hell.

We have to have a special insight, or we'll put it in the 'too tough' basket. All of you have to look for a…

I've heard that one-half of the students at elite schools want to go into private equity or hedge funds. They want to keep up…