I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don't know the other side's argument better than they do. Charlie Munger More Quotes by Charlie Munger More Quotes From Charlie Munger How could economics not be behavioral? If it isn't behavioral, what the hell is it? Charlie Munger investing economics hell Proper accounting is like engineering. You need a margin of safety. Thank God we don't design bridges and airplanes the way we do accounting. Charlie Munger engineering airplane bridges I think you'll make more money in the end with good ethics than bad. Even though there are some people who do very well, like Marc Rich-who plainly has never had any decent ethics, or seldom anyway. But in the end, Warren Buffett has done better than Marc Rich-in money-not just in reputation. Charlie Munger done people thinking I don't spend much time regretting the past, once I've taken my lesson from it. I don't dwell on it. Charlie Munger regret taken past If you get into the mental habit of relating what you're reading to the basic structure of the underlying ideas being demonstrated, you gradually accumulate some wisdom. Charlie Munger habit reading ideas You don't have to have perfect wisdom to get very rich - just a bit better than average over a long period of time. Charlie Munger perfect average long Forgetting your mistakes is a terrible error if you are trying to improve your cognition. Charlie Munger errors mistake trying If it is wisdom you're after, you're going to spend a lot of time on your ass reading. Charlie Munger ass investing reading Opportunity comes to the prepared mind. Charlie Munger prepared mind opportunity You want to deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end. Charlie Munger ends ifs world Size will hurt returns. Look at Berkshire Hathaway - the last five things Warren has done have generated returns that are splendid by historical standards, but now give him $100 billion in assets and measure outcomes across all of it, it doesn't look so good. We can only buy big positions, and the only time we can get big positions is during a horrible period of decline or stasis. That really doesn't happen very often. Charlie Munger historical hurt giving We believe that almost all really good investment records will involve relatively little diversification. The basic idea that it was hard to find good investments and that you wanted to be in good investments, and therefore, you'd just find a few of them that you knew a lot about and concentrate on those seemed to me such an obviously good idea. And indeed, it's proven to be an obviously good idea. Yet 98% of the investing world doesn't follow it. That's been good for us. Charlie Munger insightful believe ideas The game is to keep learning, and I don't think people are going to keep learning who don't like the learning process. Charlie Munger games people thinking They [Mc Donalds] take people and give them a first job, which enables them to get a second job. They do a very good job of educating troubled young people to be good citizens and they're probably more successful than charter schools. Charlie Munger successful jobs school A business model that relies on trickery is doomed to fail. Charlie Munger rely models failing You need to have a passionate interest in why things are happening. That cast of mind, kept over long periods, gradually improves your ability to focus on reality. If you don't have the cast of mind, you're destined for failure even if you have a high I.Q. Charlie Munger passion intelligent reality We have a passion for keeping things simple. Charlie Munger simplicity passion simple Berkshire has the lowest turnover of any major company in the U.S.The Walton family owns more of Wal-Mart than Buffett owns of Berkshire, so it isn't because of large holdings. It's because we have a really unusual shareholder body that thinks of itself as owners and not holders of little pieces of paper. Charlie Munger pieces paper thinking Although I am very interested in the subject of human misjudgment - and lord knows I've created a good bit of it - I don't think I've created my full statistical share, and I think that one of the reasons was I tried to do something about this terrible ignorance I left the Harvard Law School with. Charlie Munger ignorance school thinking [In picking stocks] You really have to know a lot about business. You have to know a lot about competitive advantage. You have to know a lot about the maintainability of competitive advantage. You have to have a mind that quantifies things in terms of value. And you have to be able to compare those values with other values available in the stock market. Charlie Munger advantage able mind
