Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

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

Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.

Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.

It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.

Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.

Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted it for a minute.

We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.

Predicting rain doesn't count. Building arks does.

Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.

Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.

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 buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.

Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.

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

Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

The only way to get love is to be lovable. It's very irritating if you have a lot of money. You'd like to think you could write a check: 'I'll buy a million dollars' worth of love.' But it doesn't work that way. The more you give love away, the more you get.

If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.

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.

We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.

The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth.

Our favorite holding period is forever.

When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.

The best thing I did was to choose the right heroes.

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.

Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.

The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.

Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.

Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business.

Beware of geeks bearing formulas.

We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.

Basically, when you get to my age, you'll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves - and the better the teacher, the better the student body.

There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.

If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.

You do things when the opportunities come along. I've had periods in my life when I've had a bundle of ideas come along, and I've had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I'll do something. If not, I won't do a damn thing.

Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.

Risk is a part of God's game, alike for men and nations.

The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.

I sent one e-mail in my life. I sent it to Jeff Raikes at Microsoft, and it ended up in court in Minneapolis, so I am one for one.

Economic medicine that was previously meted out by the cupful has recently been dispensed by the barrel. These once unthinkable dosages will almost certainly bring on unwelcome after-effects. Their precise nature is anyone's guess, though one likely consequence is an onslaught of inflation.

We believe that according the name 'investors' to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a 'romantic.'

I bought a company in the mid-'90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I've made lots of dumb decisions. That's part of the game.

Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn't. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value.

In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.

The only time to buy these is on a day with no 'y' in it.

If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don't care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.

It's never paid to bet against America. We come through things, but its not always a smooth ride.

Value is what you get.

I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here.

Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.

The big question about how people behave is whether they've got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard.

The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we'll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on.

There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we've got a system that allows them to do it.