The tax code gives you an enormous advantage if you can find some things you can just sit with. Charlie Munger More Quotes by Charlie Munger More Quotes From Charlie Munger Once you start doing something bad, then it's easy to take the next step - and in the end, you're a moral sewer. Charlie Munger next-steps moral easy I agree with Peter Drucker that the culture and legal systems of the United Statesare especially favorable to shareholder interests, compared to other interests and compared to most other countries. Indeed, there are many other countries where any good going to public shareholders has a very low priority and almost every other constituency stands higher in line. Charlie Munger priorities country culture One of the smartest things a person can do is dampen investment expectations, especially with Berkshire. That would be mature and responsible. I like our model and we should do nicely Charlie Munger mature expectations would-be I call myself the assistant cult leader. Charlie Munger cult assistants leader Of course you want to drive that out of yourself because you want to be wise, not foolish. You also have to allow for the self-serving bias of everybody else because most people are not going to remove it all that successfully, the human condition being what it is. If you don't allow for self-serving bias in your conduct, again you're a fool. Charlie Munger self wise people It's simplicity itself that its future will be way worse than its past. Charlie Munger simplicity way past You've got to have models in your head and you've got to array you experience - both vicarious and direct - onto this latticework of mental models. Charlie Munger investing vicarious models there are all kinds of wonderful new inventions that give you nothing as owners except the opportunity to spend a lot more money in a business that's still going to be lousy. The money still won't come to you. All of the advantages from great improvements are going to flow through to the customers. Charlie Munger investing opportunity giving I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don't believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody's that smart. Charlie Munger smart dream believe The interesting thing is the field is so big - it's enormous. One thing a modern civilization needs is energy. Charlie Munger energy civilization interesting For some odd reason, I had an early and extreme multidisciplinary cast of mind. I couldn't stand reaching for a small idea in my own discipline when there was a big idea right over the fence in somebody else's discipline. So I just grabbed in all directions for the big ideas that would really work. Charlie Munger discipline mind ideas At Berkshire Hathaway we do not like to compete against Chinese manufacturers. Charlie Munger chinese The general systems of money management [today] require people to pretend to do something they can't do and like something they don't. It's a terrible way to spend your life, but it's very well paid. Charlie Munger today people way In the 1930s, there was a stretch where you could borrow more against the real estate than you could sell it for. I think that's what's going on in today's private-equity world. Charlie Munger real world thinking Some years ago one oil company bought a fertilizer company, and every other major oil company practically ran out and bought a fertilizer company. And there was no more damned reason for all these oil companies to buy fertilizer companies, but they didn't know exactly what to do, and if Exxon was doing it, it was good enough for Mobil and vice versa. Charlie Munger oil vices years Over the long term, the eclipse rate of great civilizations being overtaken is 100%. So you know how it's going to end. (Laughter) I'm more optimistic about the staying power of what's good in this country. But just because you have a wonderful spouse doesn't mean you should treat her badly. You have the feeling that some of the old virtues [that made this country great] are lessening. But there's so much good and so much strength left that I would not expect this country to suddenly founder. Charlie Munger optimistic laughter country It is an unfortunate fact that great and foolish excess can come into prices of common stocks in the aggregate. They are valued partly like bonds, based on roughly rational projections of use value in producing future cash. But they are also valued partly like Rembrandt paintings, purchased mostly because their prices have gone up, so far. Charlie Munger excess use gone If you can buy the best companies, over time the pricing takes care of itself. Charlie Munger pricing company care Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day. Charlie Munger curiosity reading self ...all man's desired geometric progressions, if a high rate of growth is chosen, at last come to grief on a finite earth. And the social system for man on earth is fair enough, eventually, that almost all massive cheating ends in disgrace. Charlie Munger grief men cheating
