77 Quotes On Investing by Warren Buffett

1. Never invest in a business you cannot understand
2. Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing
3. The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule
4. Always invest for the long term
5. Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre
6. Our favorite holding period is forever
7. Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years
8. If you don’t feel comfortable owning something for 10 years, then don’t own it for 10 minutes
9. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get
10. Valuing a business is part art and part science
11. It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results
12. Buy a business, don’t rent stocks
13. Buy companies with strong histories of profitability and with a dominant business franchise
14. In a commodity business, it’s very hard to be smarter than your dumbest competitor
15. It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price
16. Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago
17. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently
18. Unless you can watch your stock holding decline by 50% without becoming panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market
19. The critical investment factor is determining the intrinsic value of a business and paying a fair or bargain price
20. Investors making purchases in an overheated market need to recognize that it may often take an extended period for the value of even an outstanding company to catch up with the price they paid
21. An investor needs to do very few things right as long as he or she avoids big mistakes
22. Do a lot of reading’ (On how to determine the value of a business)
23. Read Ben Graham and Phil Fisher read annual reports, but don’t do equations with Greek letters in them
24. I am a better investor because I am a businessman and a better businessman because I am an investor
25. The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth
26. I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over
27. We will only do with your money what we would do with our own
28. Risk can be greatly reduced by concentrating on only a few holdings
29. Turnarounds seldom turn
30. If at first you do succeed, quit trying on investing
31. You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong
32. Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they’re doing
33. Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing
34. If a business does well, the stock eventually follows
35. When a management team with a reputation for brilliance joins a business with poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact
36. With few exceptions when a manager with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for poor economics, it is the reputation of the business which remains intact
37. A great investment opportunity occurs when a marvelous business encounters a one-time huge, but solvable problem
38. Great investment opportunities come around when excellent companies are surrounded by unusual circumstances that cause the stock to be misappraised
39. A hyperactive stock market is the pickpocket of enterprise
40. In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield
41. The business schools reward complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective
42. An investor should ordinarily hold a small piece of an outstanding business with the same tenacity that an owner would exhibit if he owned all of that business
43. Only those who will be sellers of equities in the near future should be happy at seeing stocks rise.  Prospective purchasers should much prefer sinking prices
44. Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked
45. The fact that people will be full of greed, fear, or folly is predictable. The sequence is not predictable
46. With enough insider information and a million dollars, you can go broke in a year
47. A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought
48. For some reason, people take their cues from price action rather than from values. What doesn’t work is when you start doing things that you don’t understand or because they worked last week for somebody else. The dumbest reason in the world to buy a stock is because it’s going up
49. Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can’t buy what is popular and do well
50. We will reject interesting opportunities rather than over-leverage our balance sheet.
51. We don’t get paid for activity, just for being right. As to how long we will wait, we’ll wait indefinitely
52. We like to buy businesses, but we don’t like to sell them
53. You’re neither right nor wrong because other people agree with you. You’re right because your facts are right and your reasoning is right – that’s the only thing that makes you right. And if your facts and reasoning are right, you don’t have to worry about anybody else
54. The Stock Market is designed to transfer money from the Active to the Patient
55. Stop trying to predict the direction of the stock market, the economy, interest rates, or elections
56. Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it
57. Anything can happen in stock markets and you ought to conduct your affairs so that if the most extraordinary events happen, that you’re still around to play the next day
58. Chains of habits are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken
59. It’s us fun being a gorse when the tractor comes along, or the blacksmith when the car comes along
60. Enjoy your work and work for whom you admire
61. I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute
62. I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful
63. I never buy anything unless I can fill out on a piece of paper my reasons. I may be wrong, but I would know the answer to that. “I’m paying $32 billion today for the Coca Cola Company because.” If you can’t answer that question, you shouldn’t buy it. If you can answer that question, and you do it a few times, you’ll make a lot of money
64. I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for ten years
65. I don’t measure my life by the money I’ve made. Other people might, but certainly don’t
66. I really like my life. I’ve arranged my life so that I can do what I want
67. I do not like debt and do not like to invest in companies that have too much debt, particularly long-term debt. With long-term debt, increases in interest rates can drastically affect company profits and make future cash flows less predictable
68. It’s not debt per say that overwhelms an individual corporation or country. Rather it is a continuous increase in debt in relation to income that causes trouble
69. You ought to be able to explain why you’re taking the job you’re taking, why you’re making the investment you’re making, or whatever it may be. And if it can’t stand applying pencil to paper, you’d better think it through some more. And if you can’t write an intelligent answer to those questions, don’t do it
70. You shouldn’t own common stocks if a 50 per cent decrease in their value in a short period of time would cause you acute distress
71. You do not adequately protect yourself by being half awake when other are sleeping
72. You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing
73. Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, ‘Too much of a good thing can be wonderful
74. When asked how he became so successful in investing, Buffett answered: ‘we read hundreds and hundreds of annual reports every year
75. As Buffet said in the speech, “He’s not looking at quarterly earnings projections, he’s not looking at next year’s earnings, he’s not thinking about what day of the week it is, he doesn’t care what investment research from any place says, he’s not interested in price momentum, volume or anything. He’s simply asking: What is the business worth?
76. Cash never makes us happy, but it’s better to have the money burning a hole in Berkshire’s pocket than resting comfortably in someone else’s
77. Money to some extent sometimes let you be in more interesting environments. But it can’t change how many people love you or how healthy you are