26 quotes
I make no attempt to forecast the general market — my efforts are devoted to finding undervalued securities.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
It's simply to say that managers and investors alike must understand that accounting numbers is the beginning, not the end, of business valuation.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
In fact, when we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
Long ago, Ben Graham taught me that “Price is what you pay; value is what you get.” Whether we're talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
Size seems to make many organizations slow-thinking, resistant to change and smug.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
After all, you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
The worst sort of business is one that grows rapidly, requires significant capital to engender the growth, and then earns little or no money.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
After 25 years of buying and supervising a great variety of businesses, Charlie and I have not learned how to solve difficult business problems. What we have learned is to avoid them.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
We never want to count on the kindness of strangers in order to meet tomorrow's obligations. When forced to choose, I will not trade even a night's sleep for the chance of extra profits.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
Putting people into homes, though a desirable goal, shouldn't be our country's primary objective. Keeping them in their homes should be the ambition.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
We will reject interesting opportunities rather than over-leverage our balance sheet.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
I've reluctantly discarded the notion of my continuing to manage the portfolio after my death — abandoning my hope to give new meaning to the term "thinking outside the box."
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
Our stay-put behavior reflects our view that the stock market serves as a relocation center at which money is moved from the active to the patient.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
Upon leaving [the derivatives business], our feelings about the business mirrored a line in a country song: "I liked you better before I got to know you so well."
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
Management's objective is to achieve a return on capital over the long term which averages somewhat higher than that of American industry generally — while utilizing sound accounting and debt policies.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
Over the years, Charlie [Munger, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman] and I have observed many accounting-based frauds of staggering size. Few of the perpetrators have been punished; many have not even been censured. It has been far safer to steal large sums with pen than small sums with a gun.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
An irresistible footnote: in 1971, pension fund managers invested a record 122% of net funds available in equities — at full prices they couldn't buy enough of them. In 1974, after the bottom had fallen out, they committed a then record low of 21% to stocks.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
In a bull market, one must avoid the error of the preening duck that quacks boastfully after a torrential rainstorm, thinking that its paddling skills have caused it to rise in the world. A right-thinking duck would instead compare its position after the downpour to that of the other ducks on the pond.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)
But a pin lies in wait for every bubble. And when the two eventually meet, a new wave of investors learns some very old lessons: First, many in Wall Street — a community in which quality control is not prized — will sell investors anything they will buy. Second, speculation is most dangerous when it looks easiest.
Letters to Shareholders (1957)