My favorite Berkshire product: See's candy |
So maybe you don't want to take health advice from the so-called Oracle of Omaha. But you know he's doing something right, certainly in business and probably in life as well. Here are a few samples of the wit and wisdom of Warren Buffett:
On the stock market: "The market, like the Lord, helps those who help themselves. But, unlike the Lord, the market does not forgive those who know not what they do."
On his company's bare-bones bureaucracy: "A compact organization lets all of us spend our time managing the business rather than managing each other."
On trust but verify: "All managements say they're acting in the shareholders' interests. What you'd like to do as an investor is hook them up to a machine and run a polygraph to see whether it's true."
On administrative bloat: "Managers who want to expand their domain at the expense of owners might better consider a career in government."
On government regulation: "There are significant limits to what regulation can accomplish. People continue to do foolish things no matter what the regulation is, and they always will."
On investor thinking: "Man's natural inclination is to cling to his beliefs, particularly if they are reinforced by recent experience -- a flaw in our makeup that bears on what happens during bull markets and extended periods of stagnation."
On opportunity: "A true investor welcomes volatility because a wildly fluctuating market means that irrationally low prices will periodically be attached to solid businesses."
A collection of Buffett articles |
On emotions: "Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies ... If they insist on trying to time their participation in equities they should be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful."
On expectations: "You and I can sell each other stocks at higher and higher prices. You personally might outsmart the next fellow ... but bear in mind that investors as a whole cannot get anything out of their businesses except what the businesses earn."
On bad businesses: "When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact."
On inheritance: "The perfect amount to leave children is enough money so they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing."
On philanthropy: "In my own case, 99%-plus of my wealth will go back to society, because I've been treated extraordinarily well by society."
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