Warren Buffett

United States
Born on 30 Aug 1930
Business Magnate / Investor / Philanthropist

Quotes

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Writing checks to the IRS that include strings of zeros does not bother me... Overall, we feel extraordinarily lucky to have been dealt a hand in life that enables us to write large checks to the government rather than one requiring the government to regularly write checks to us � say, because we are disabled or unemployed.

Chairman's Letter to Shareholders, Berkshire Hathaway 1998 Annual Report
If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end - people like myself - should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it.
I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.
What an investor needs is the ability to correctly evaluate selected businesses. Note that word 'selected': You don't have to be an expert on every company, or even many. You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.
If you aren't willing to own a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes.

Chairman's Letter to Shareholders (1997)
If you expect to be a net saver during the next five years, should you hope for a higher or lower stock market?...Many investors get this one wrong...Only those who will be sellers of equities in the near future should be happy at seeing stocks rise.

Chairman's Letter to Shareholders (1998)
In assessing risk, a beta purist will disdain examining what a company produces, what its competitors are doing... What he treasures is the price history of its stock. In contrast, we... seek whatever information will further our understanding of the company's business. After we buy a stock we would not be disturbed if markets closed for a year or two.

Chairman's Letter to Shareholders (1995)
Smile when you read a headline that says 'Investors lose as market falls.' Edit it in your mind to 'Disinvestors lose as market falls�but investors gain.' Though writers often forget this truism, there is a buyer for every seller and what hurts one necessarily helps the other.

Chairman's Letter to Shareholders (1998)
The true investor 'welcomes' volatility...a wildly fluctuating market means that irrationally low prices will periodically be attached to solid businesses.

Chairman's Letter to Shareholders (1995)
Why potential buyers even look at projections prepared by sellers baffles me... I never give them a glance, but instead keep in mind the story of the man with an ailing horse. Visiting the vet, he said: 'Can you help me? Sometimes my horse walks just fine and sometimes he limps.' The vet's reply was pointed: 'No problem � when he's walking fine, sell him.'

Chairman's Letter to Shareholders (1996)
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