Warren Buffett Quotes

111 Sourced Quotes

It's simply to say that managers and investors alike must understand that accounting numbers is the beginning, not the end, of business valuation.

Warren Buffett
A great investment opportunity occurs when a marvelous business encounters a one-time huge, but solvable problem.

Warren Buffett
A very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything but not enough to do nothing.

Warren Buffett
Capitalism is all about somebody coming and trying to take the castle. Now what you need is.... you need a castle that has some durable competitive advantage — some castle that has a moat around it.

Warren Buffett
Businesses always have opportunities to improve service, product lines, manufacturing techniques, and the like, and obviously these opportunities should be seized. But a business that constantly encounters major change also encounters many chances for major error

Warren Buffett
In a difficult business, no sooner is one problem solved than another surfaces - never is there just one cockroach in the kitchen.

Warren Buffett
Managers thinking about accounting issues should never forget one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite riddles: How many legs does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg? The answer: Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

Warren Buffett
I learned to go into business only with people whom I like, trust, and admire.

Warren Buffett
It's a good idea to review past mistakes before committing new ones.

Warren Buffett
In the end we must have people to match our principles, not the reverse.

Warren Buffett
The range of derivatives contracts is limited only by the imagination of man (or sometimes, so it seems, madmen). Say you want to write a contract speculating on the number of twins to be born in Nebraska in 2020. No problem-at a price, you will easily find an obliging counterparty.

Warren Buffett
The best asset is your own self. You can become to an enormous degree the person you want to be

Warren Buffett
Managers that always promise to 'make the numbers' will at some point be tempted to make up the numbers.

Warren Buffett
We do not view the company itself as the ultimate owner of our business assets but instead view the company as a conduit through which our shareholders own assets.

Warren Buffett
Working with people who cause your stomach to churn seems much like marrying for money - probably a bad idea under any circumstances, but absolute madness if you are already rich.

Warren Buffett
We can afford to lose money - even a lot of money. But we can't afford to lose reputation - even a shred of reputation.

Warren Buffett
Accounting consequences do not influence our operating or capital-allocation decisions. When acquisition costs are similar, we much prefer to purchase $2 of earnings that is not reportable by us under standard accounting principles than to purchase $1 of earnings that is reportable.

Warren Buffett
In business, I look for economic castles protected by unbreachable 'moats'.

Warren Buffett
Getting fired can produce a particularly bountiful payday for a CEO. Indeed, he can 'earn' more in that single day, while cleaning out his desk, than an American worker earns in a lifetime of cleaning toilets. Forget the old maxim about nothing succeeding like success: Today, in the executive suite, the all-too-prevalent rule is that nothing succeeds like failure.

Warren Buffett
The greater the potential for reward in the value portfolio, the less risk there is.

Warren Buffett
There is seldom just one cockroach in the kitchen. You know, you turn on the light and, all of sudden, they all start scurrying around.

Warren Buffett