The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule. Warren Buffett More Quotes by Warren Buffett More Quotes From Warren Buffett Do not take yearly results too seriously. Instead, focus on four or five-year averages. Warren Buffett focusaverageyears I was lucky enough to be born in a time and place where society values my talent, and gave me a good education to develop that talent, and set up the laws and the finanical system to let me do what I love doing-and make a lot of money doing it. The least I can do is help pay for all that. Warren Buffett luckylawpay By periodically investing in an index fund, the know-nothing investors can actually outperform most investment professionals. Warren Buffett investmentinvestingfund Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre. Warren Buffett moneytimelife Buy into a company because you want to own it, not because you want the stock to go up. Warren Buffett investing-moneybuffetswant If you understood a business perfectly and the future of the business, you would need very little in the way of a margin of safety. So, the more vulnerable the business is, assuming you still want to invest in it, the larger margin of safety you'd need. If you're driving a truck across a bridge that says it holds 10,000 pounds and you've got a 9,800 pound vehicle, if the bridge is 6 inches above the crevice it covers, you may feel okay, but if it's over the Grand Canyon, you may feel you want a little larger margin of safety. Warren Buffett safetybridgesneeds Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business. Warren Buffett businesssuccesslife If you knew what was going to happen in the economy, you still wouldn't necessarily know what was going to happen in the stock market. Warren Buffett investingeconomystills A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought. Warren Buffett generositywarlife 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. Warren Buffett cash-flowtoo-muchlong Money will not change how healthy you are or how many people love you. Warren Buffett love-youlifepeople Credit worthiness is like virginity, it can be preserved but not restored very easily, so it is crazy to play around with it. Warren Buffett creditcrazyplay Somebody's buying these treasury bills at 1/20th of one percent. Consuming about $2 billion a day of goods and services beyond what we're producing. In other words, the rest of the world sends about $2 billion a day net of something.We got to send them something in return, don't we. So we send them little pieces of paper. Warren Buffett piecespaperworld We don't read other people's opinions. We want to get the facts, and then think. Warren Buffett wantpeoplethinking The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball. Warren Buffett investing-moneytriumphpeople I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection. Warren Buffett gdpsittinglaw The [stock] 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. Warren Buffett forgivingdoehelping A lot of people disagree with me on this, I believe in mark to market. Warren Buffett markbelievepeople Confidence in markets and in institutions, it's a lot like oxygen. When you have it, you don't even think about it. It's indispensable. You can go years without thinking about it. When it's gone for five minutes, it's the only thing to think about. Warren Buffett oxygenyearsthinking For example: (1) As if governed by Newton's First Law of Motion, an institution will resist any change in its current direction; (2) Just as work expands to fill available time, corporate projects or acquisitions will materialize to soak up available funds; (3) Any business craving of the leader, however foolish, will be quickly supported by detailed rate-of-return and strategic studies prepared by his troops; and (4) The behavior of peer companies, whether they are expanding, acquiring, setting executive compensation or whatever, will be mindlessly imitated. Warren Buffett peersleaderlaw
