Quotessence
Home / Authors / Charlie Munger
Charlie Munger

Charlie Munger Quotes

Business person

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsPeopleThinkingInvestingWayWantKnowsWorldLongWellsLittlesHardInvestmentIdeasValuesCompanyTryingBigsYearsShould

Famous Charlie Munger Quotes

“Obviously if you want to get good at something which is competitive, you have to think about it and practice a lot. You have to keep learning because world keeps changing and competitors keep learning. You have to go to bed wiser than you got up. As you try to master what you are trying to do – people who do that almost never fail utterly. Very few have ever failed with that approach. You may rise slowly, but you are sure to rise.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWorldWantTryingMayPracticeFailingMastersBedApproachWiserCompetitorsKeep Learning
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“In investment management today, everybody wants not only to win, but to have a yearly outcome path that never diverges very much from a standard path except on the upside. Well, that is a very artificial, crazy construct. That's the equivalent in investment management to the custom of binding the feet of Chinese women”

WantWellsTodayWinningPathFeetCrazyStandardsManagementInvestmentChineseOutcomesCustomsArtificialConstructsBindingInvestment Management
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“I also want to raise the possibility that there are, in the very long term, "virtue effects" in economics- for instance that widespread corrupt accounting will eventually create bad long term consequences as a sort of obverse effect from the virtue-based boost double-entry book-keeping gave to the heyday of Venice. I suggest that when the financial scene starts reminding you of Sodomand Gomorrah, you should fear practical consequences even if you like to participate in what is going on.”

IfsWantShouldLongBookTermVirtueEffectsPossibilitySceneConsequenceEconomicsRaisesFinancialPracticalsInstanceLong TermVeniceEntryAccountingRemindingBoostHeyday
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“At most corporations if you make an acquisition and it turns out to be a disaster, all the paperwork and presentations that caused the dumb acquisition to be made are quickly forgotten. You've got denial, you've got everything in the world. You've got Pavlovian association tendency. Nobody even wants to even be associated with the damned thing or even mention it. At Johnson & Johnson, they make everybody revisit their old acquisitions and wade through the presentations. That is a very smart thing to do. And by the way, I do the same thing routinely.”

IfsWorldWayWantMadeTurnsSmartForgottenDisasterTendenciesDumbDenialCorporationsThings To DoAssociationJohnsonPresentationAcquisitionVery SmartWadePaperwork
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“I'd say 3/4 of advertising works on pure Pavlov. Think how association, pure association, works. Take Coca-Cola company (we're the biggest share-holder). They want to be associated with every wonderful image: heroics in the Olympics, wonderful music, you name it. They don't want to be associated with presidents' funerals and so-forth.”

ThinkingWantNamesPresidentCompanyWonderfulSharePureAdvertisingFuneralAssociationOlympicsCoca ColaPavlov
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“Another thing I think should be avoided is extremely intense ideology because it cabbages up one's mind. You see it a lot with T.V. preachers (many have minds made of cabbage) but it can also happen with political ideology. When you're young it's easy to drift into loyalties and when you announce that you're a loyal member and you start shouting the orthodox ideology out, what you're doing is pounding it in, pounding it in, and you're gradually ruining your mind. So you want to be very, very careful of this ideology. It's a big danger.”

ThinkingWantShouldMindMadeBigsHappensYoungPoliticalEasyDangerMembersCarefulLoyaltyIntenseIdeologyOrthodoxLoyalPreacherAvoidedShoutingCabbagePolitical Ideology
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“Of course you want to drive that out of yourself because you want to be wise, not foolish. You also have to allow for the self-serving bias of everybody else because most people are not going to remove it all that successfully, the human condition being what it is. If you don't allow for self-serving bias in your conduct, again you're a fool.”

PeopleIfsWantHumansSelfCoursesWiseConditionsFoolFoolishRemoveServingHuman ConditionBiasBeing WiseSelf Serving
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“...People need to ask, "How do I play the hand that has been dealt me?" The world is not going to give you extra return just because you want it. You have to be very shrewd and hard working to get a little extra. It's so much easier to reduce your wants. There are a lot of smart people and a lot of them cheat, so it's not easy to win.”

PeopleWorldWantNeedsGivingLittlesHas BeensHardPlayHandsAsksWinningEasyHard WorkReturnEasierSmartExtrasCheatSmart People
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“Where you have complexity, by nature you can have fraud and mistakes. You'll have more of that than in a company that shovels sand from a river and sells it. This will always be true of financial companies, including ones run by governments. If you want accurate numbers from financial companies, you're in the wrong world.”

IfsWorldWantGovernmentRunningNumbersMistakeCompanyRiversSellsIncludingFinancialBeing TrueComplexitySandFraudAccurateShovels
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“I think that if you have a single payer system and an opt-out for people who want to pay more [for better service, etc.], I think it would be better - and I think we'll eventually get there. It wouldn't be better at the top - [our current system] is the best in the world at the top. But the waste in the present system is awesome and we do get some very perverse incentives.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWorldWantWould BePayWasteCurrentsEtcIncentives
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“The interesting thing about it to me is the mindset. With all these "helpers" running around, they talk about doing deals. We talk about welcoming partners. The guy doing deals, he wants to do a deal and then unwind it in the near future. It's totally opposite for us. We like to build lasting relationships. I think our system will work better in the long term than flipping deals. I think there are so many of them [helpers] that they'll get in ea h other's way. I don't think they'll make enough money to meet their expectations, by flipping, flipping, flipping.”

ThinkingWayWantLongEnoughRunningGuyTermInterestingDealsExpectationsOppositesMindsetPartnersWelcomeLong TermLastingInteresting ThingsHelpersUnwindLasting Relationship
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“The lawyers have escaped most criticism [and undeservedly so]. The tax shelters [were approved by lawyers, who got paid huge commissions to do so] and every miscreant had a high-falutin' lawyer at his side. Why don't more law firms vote with their feet and not take clients who have signs on them that say, "I'm a skunk and will be hard to handle?" I've noticed that firms that avoid trouble over long periods of time have an institutional process that tunes bad clients out. Boy, if I were running a law firm, I'd want a system like that because a lot of firms have a lot of bad clients.”

IfsWantLongHardRunningLawProcessSidesBoysTroubleFeetHugePeriodsTaxesCriticismVotePaidLawyerHandleFirmTunesShelterClientsApprovedLong Periods Of TimeLaw FirmsHard To Handle
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“"[Lawyers who file class-action securities suits] is not a group you would want to marry into your family. "That said, more than half the time the people being sued by the Lerach firm are guilty of outrageous conduct. The problem is, they don't mind (suing) the other half. They are an equal opportunity litigator."”

PeopleWantMindSaidProblemActionOpportunityHalfClassGroupsSecurityEqualLawyerGuiltySuitsFirmOur FamilyFilesOutrageousOther HalfEqual OpportunitySuingLitigators
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“We like our current shareholders and don't want to entice anyone to become one. It would help current shareholders to hear our CEOs [of the Berkshireoperating subsidiaries], but we promised them they could spend 100% of their time on their business. We place no impediments on them running their businesses. Many have expressed to me how happy they are that they don't have to spend 25% of time on activities they didn't like.”

WantHelpingRunningActivityCurrentsCeoShareholdersImpediments
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“I think we have lost our way when people like the [board of] governors and the CEO of the NYSE fail to realize they have a duty to the rest of us to act as exemplars... You do not want your first-grade school teacher to be fornicating on the floor or drinking booze in the classroom; similarly you do not want your stock exchange to be setting the wrong moral example.”

PeopleThinkingWayWantFirstsSchoolLostRealizingMoralTeacherFailingExampleDutyDrinkingAlcoholSettingSettingsBoardsGradesGovernorsCeoClosetsDrinking AlcoholSchool TeachersGrades In SchoolStock Exchange
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image

“I don't have too much interest in teaching other people how to get rich. And that isn't because I fear the competition or anything like that - Warrenhas always been very open about what he's learned, and I share that ethos. My personal behavior model is Lord Keynes: I wanted to get rich so I could be independent, and so I could do other things like give talks on the intersection of psychology and economics. I didn't want to turn it into a total obsession.”

PeopleWantGivingWantedTurnsInterestLordRichPsychologyToo MuchShareTeachingBehaviorModelsEconomicsIndependentCompetitionObsessionGet RichEthosIntersectionsKeynesTeaching OthersPersonal Behavior
Author:Charlie Munger
Create image