Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time, with an estimated net worth of over $100 billion as of 2021. Known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” Buffett is widely admired for his wit, wisdom, and investing acumen. Over the course of his long career, he has shared many memorable quotes and insights on investing, business, and life. In this article, we’ve gathered some of the most famous and insightful Warren Buffett quotes to inspire and educate investors of all levels. From timeless advice on patience and discipline to his humorous take on wealth and success, these quotes offer valuable lessons for anyone seeking to improve their financial acumen and outlook on life.
50 Warren Buffett Quotes
- “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”
- “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1.”
- “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”
- “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”
- “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
- “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.”
- “The most important investment you can make is in yourself.”
- “Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble.”
- “I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.”
- “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”
- “We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”
- “If you aren’t thinking about owning a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes.”
- “You can’t make a good deal with a bad person.”
- “In the world of business, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.”
- “Honesty is a very expensive gift. Don’t expect it from cheap people.”
- “The best investment you can make is in your own abilities. Anything you can do to develop your own abilities or business is likely to be more productive.”
- “Our favorite holding period is forever.”
- “Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.”
- “Price fluctuations have only one significant meaning for the true investor. They provide him with an opportunity to buy wisely when prices fall sharply and to sell wisely when they advance a great deal.”
- “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
- “We don’t have to be smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest.”
- “Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre.”
- “I don’t look to jump over seven-foot bars: I look around for one-foot bars that I can step over.”
- “The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth.”
- “You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.”
- “Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.”
- “The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect.”
- “If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.”
- “Never invest in a business you cannot understand.”
- “It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.”
- “I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.”
- “The biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital.”
- “Price and value are not the same thing.”
- “Investors should be skeptical of history-based models. Constructed by a nerdy-sounding priesthood using esoteric terms such as beta, gamma, sigma, and the like, these models tend to look impressive. Too often, though, investors forget to examine the assumptions behind the models. Beware of geeks bearing formulas.”
- “We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.”
- “Our approach is very much profiting from lack of change rather than from change. With Wrigley chewing gum, it’s the lack of change that appeals to me. I don’t think it is going to be hurt by the Internet. That’s the kind of business I like.”
- “I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.”
- “A public opinion poll is no substitute for thought.”
- “When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.”
- “It’s better to be approximately right than precisely wrong.”
- “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.”
- “You don’t need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ.”
- “It’s not about being right, it’s about being effective.”
- “I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will.”
- “We don’t get paid for activity, just for being right. As to how long we’ll wait, we’ll wait indefinitely.”
- “It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.”
- “I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.”
- “If you’re in the luckiest 1% of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99%.”
- “The best thing I did was choose the right heroes.”
- “The only time to buy these is on a day with no ‘y’ in it.” (Referring to his aversion to buying tech stocks)