Warren Buffett Quotes - 21 quotes

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Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett is a renowned American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is often referred to as the "Oracle of Omaha," and is widely considered one of the most successful investors of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He was born on August 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska. He began his inv... show more

quote icon So now I would rather buy a wonderful business at a fair price, than a fair business at a wonderful price.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon I have an old fashioned belief that I only should expect to make money in things that I understand. And when I say understand, I don't mean understand, you know, what the product does or anything like that. I mean understand what the economics of the business are likely to look like 10 years from now or 20 years from now.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon But the biggest mistakes we've made by far, I've made not we've made, are mistakes of omission and not commission. I mean it's the things I knew enough to do, they were within my circle of competence, and I was sucking my thumb. And those are the ones that hurt. They don't show up any place.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon Big opportunities in life have to be seized.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon We look for three things when we hire people. We look for intelligence, we look for initiative or energy, and we look for integrity. And if you don't have the latter, the first two will kill you, because if you are going to get somebody without integrity, you want them lazy and dumb.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon After all, you only find out who is swimming naked until the tide goes out.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon Count the number of people who love you. And to be loved, you have to be lovable.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon Our kids are great. But I would argue that when your kids have all the advantages anyway, in terms of how they grow up and the opportunities they have for education, including what they learn at home - I would say it's neither right nor rational to be flooding them with money.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon Well, when we got married in 1952, I told Susie I was going to be rich. That wasn't going to be because of any special virtues of mine or even because of hard work, but simply because I was born with the right skills in the right place at the right time. I was wired at birth to allocate capital and was lucky enough to have people around me early on - my parents and teachers and Susie - who helped me to make the most of that.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon I still believe in the philosophy - FORTUNE quoted me saying this 20 years ago - that a very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything but not enough to do nothing.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon But the real action from compounding takes place in the final twenty years of a lifetime. By not stepping on any banana peels, I now remain in circulation at 94 with huge sums in savings – call these units of deferred consumption – that can be passed along to others who were given a very short straw at birth.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon I am also lucky that my philanthropic philosophy has been enthusiastically embraced – and widened – by both of my wives. Neither I, Susie Sr. nor Astrid, who succeeded her, believed in dynastic wealth. Instead, we shared a view that equal opportunity should begin at birth and extreme “look-at-me” styles of living should be legal but not admirable.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon My kids are going to carve out their own place in this world, and they know I'm for them whatever they want to do. But setting up heirs with a lifetime supply of food stamps just because they came out of the right womb can be harmful for them and is an antisocial act. The perfect amount to leave children is enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon Some material things make my life more enjoyable; many, however, would not. I like having an expensive private plane, but owning a half-dozen homes would be a burden...Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner. The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon Father time always wins. But he can be fickle — indeed unfair and even cruel — sometimes ending life at birth or soon thereafter while, at other times, waiting a century or so before paying a visit. To date, I’ve been very lucky, but, before long, he will get around to me.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon I have one further suggestion for all parents, whether they are of modest or staggering wealth. When your children are mature, have them read your will before you sign it. Be sure each child understands both the logic for your decisions and the responsibilities they will encounter upon your death. If any have questions or suggestions, listen carefully and adopt those found sensible. You don’t want your children asking ‘Why?’ in respect to testamentary decisions when you are no longer able to respond.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon I change my will every couple of years – often only in very minor ways – and keep things simple. Over the years, Charlie and I saw many families driven apart after the posthumous dictates of the will left beneficiaries confused and sometimes angry. Jealousies, along with actual or imagined slights during childhood, became magnified, particularly when sons were favored over daughters, either in monetary ways or by positions of importance. Charlie and I also witnessed a few cases where a wealthy parent’s will that was fully discussed before death helped the family become closer. What could be more satisfying?

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon Never ask the barber if you need a haircut.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing things with logic. True power is restraint. If words control you that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass.

- Warren Buffett

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quote icon It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.

- Warren Buffett

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