Quotessence
Home / Authors / Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett Quotes

Investor

Filter quotes by topic

AllInvestingIfsPeopleInvestmentBuffetsThinkingInvestorsShouldBusinessKnowsYearsCompanyLongMeanWantValuesWellsImportantNeedsWorld

Famous Warren Buffett Quotes

“When you listen to tax-cut rhetoric, remember that giving one class of taxpayer a break requires - now or down the line - that an equivalent burden be imposed on other parties. In other words, if I get a break, someone else pays. Government can't deliver a free lunch to the country as a whole. It can however, determine who pays for lunch.”

IfsGivingCountryWholeGovernmentRememberLinesPartyPayClassBreakCuttingTaxesDetermineBurdenLunchRhetoricTaxpayersTax CutsFree Lunch
Author:Warren Buffett
Create image

“There is one thing of which I can assure you. If good performance of the fund is even a minor objective, any portfolio encompassing one hundred stocks (whether the manager is handling one thousand dollars or one billion dollars) is not being operated logically. The addition of the one hundredth stock simply can't reduce the potential variance in portfolio performance sufficiently to compensate for the negative effect its inclusion has on the overall portfolio expectation.”

IfsI CanOne ThingEffectsThousandExpectationsHundredNegativePerformancesDollarsBillionsObjectivesManagersFundInclusionMinorsPortfoliosVariance
Author:Warren Buffett
Create image

“Who would think of buying or selling a private business because of someone's guess on the stock market? The availability of a quotation for your business interest (stock) should always be an asset to be utilized if desired. If it gets silly enough in either direction, you take advantage of it. Its availability should never be turned into a livability whereby its periodic aberrations in turn formulate your judgements.”

IfsThinkingShouldEnoughTurnsInterestAdvantageSillySellingJudgementBuyingAssetsQuotationsAvailabilityAberration
Author:Warren Buffett
Create image

“One observer commenting on security analysts over forty stated: "They know too many things that are no longer true." As long as I am "on stage", publishing a regular record and assuming responsibility for management of what amounts to virtually 100% of the net worth of many partners, I will never be able to put sustained effort into any non-BPL activity. If I am going to participate publicly. I can't help being competitive. I know I don't want to be totally occupied with out-pacing an investment rabbit all my life. The only way to slow down is to stop.”

IfsKnowsWayWantLongI CanHelpingAbleEffortResponsibilityRecordsStageSecurityAmountActivityManagementAssumingInvestmentPartnersFortyPublishingObserversSlow DownRabbitsAnalystsPacingNet WorthAssuming Responsibility
Author:Warren Buffett
Create image

“We want to use cash. The reason we haven't used our cash two years ago, we just didn't find things that were that attractive. But when people talk about cash being king, it's not king if it just sits there and never does anything. There are times when cash buys more than other times, and this is one of the other times when it buys a fair amount more, so we use it.”

PeopleIfsWantYearsDoeTwoReasonUseUsedHavensAmountKingsFairsYears AgoAttractiveTwo YearsCashTwo Years Ago
Author:Warren Buffett
Create image

“I don't want to give a lecture to this body that's out there. You know, I mean, having had the heart attack, I want to get it back functioning. And as a practical matter, I mean if you were Bear Stearns, and you were a shareholder, you know, you lost 90 to 95 percent of your money. A good many lost their jobs. They lost very cushy lives, many of them.”

IfsKnowsWantGivingHeartMeanMatterBodyJobsLostBearsPercentPracticalsGood ManLecturesShareholdersHeart Attack
Author:Warren Buffett
Create image

“If you were at Lehman, the same thing happened. If you were at AIG, the shareholders are getting creamed on these things. And those shareholders are not just a bunch of big shots in Wall Street. Those are pension funds, and those are investors all over the country. I wouldn't worry too much about that. Justice won't be perfect on it.”

IfsCountryBigsJusticePerfectWorryToo MuchHappenedStreetsWallShotsThings HappenBunchFundInvestorsPensionShareholdersBig Shots
Author:Warren Buffett
Create image

“[The U.S. Treasury] can borrow basically unlimited amounts. They can stay there for years and years. These assets will be worth more money over time. So when Merrill Lynch sells a bunch of mortgage-related assets at 22 cents on the dollar like they did a month or so ago, the buyer goes - is going to make money, and he's going to make a lot more money if it happens to be an institution like the U.S. government which has very, very cheap borrowing costs.”

IfsYearsGovernmentHappensMonthsAmountCostInstitutionsSellsDollarsBunchMaking MoneyRelatedAssetsCentsMore MoneyUnlimitedMortgageBorrowingTreasuryBuyers
Author:Warren Buffett
Create image

“When Berkshire Hathaway laid out three billion dollars for GE today, we didn't spend it, we invested it. When the Federal government buys the mortgages, they're not spending it, they're investing it. Now, they're investing it in distress type assets but they're buying them at distress prices if they buy them at market. It's the kind of stuff I love to do. I just don't have 700 million. Maybe we could go in it together.”

IfsKindGovernmentTodayTogetherThreeStuffMillionsTypeDollarsInvestingSpendingBillionsBuyingAssetsDistressFederal GovernmentMortgage
Author:Warren Buffett
Create image

“And people really behaved in a fraudulent way or something, we'll go back and find the culprits later on. But that really isn't the problem we have. I mean that's where it came from, though. We leveraged up and if you have a 20 percent fall in value of a $20 trillion asset, that's $4 trillion. And when $4 trillion lands - losses land in the wrong part of this economy, it can gum up the whole place.”

PeopleIfsWayMeanWholeProblemValuesFallLossEconomyLandPercentAssetsGumCulprit
Author:Warren Buffett
Create image

“When somebody makes it very easy for you to do it by saying you don't really have to put up my money, you can lie about your income a little, or we'll give you 100 percent mortgage, you're going to do it, because everybody that's done it has been proven right. You have social tools, and you're going to feel like an idiot if you didn't do it, because the house cost more.”

IfsGivingFeelsLittlesHas BeensDoneLyingHouseSocialEasyCostPercentToolsIncomeIdiotProvenMortgage
Author:Warren Buffett
Create image

“I mean you know at midnight everything is going to turn to pumpkins and mice; right? But if the evening goes along, I mean, you know, the guys look better all the time, the music sounds better, it's more and more fun, you think why the hell should I leave at quarter of 12. I'll leave at two minutes to 12. But the trouble is, there are no clocks on the wall. And everybody thinks they're going to leave at two minutes to 12.”

IfsThinkingKnowsShouldLooksMeanTwoGuyTurnsFunSoundHellTroubleMinutesWallEveningClockQuartersShould IMiceMidnightPumpkin
Author:Warren Buffett
Create image

“If some institution wants to sell you a billion dollars worth of mortgages, they might have to sell 100 million in the market, and then you'll buy the other 900 million on the same terms. Now, the very fact that this has been authorized or will be authorized, I hope, will firm up the market to some degree. And that's fine. But you don't want to have artificial prices being paid.”

IfsWantHas BeensFactsMightTermMillionsFineDegreesPaidInstitutionsSellsDollarsBillionsFirmArtificialMortgage
Author:Warren Buffett
Create image

“That would be nice if [people] stuck [treasury bills] all under a mattress, but they got to buy something with them. Sometimes they buy a treasury note, sometimes they set up sovereign wealth funds. They can do all kinds of things. They can buy our companies here. As long as we consume more than we produce, and we trade away little pieces of the country daily, they're going to own something. Now, they can't run from American assets. I mean every day the rest of the world is going to have about two billion more of American assets than we have, as long as they sell us these goods.”

PeopleIfsWorldKindMeanLittlesLongTwoCountrySometimesWould BeRunningCan DoWealthCompanyPiecesNiceProduceTradeBillsSellsNotesBillionsStuckAll KindsFundGoodsAssetsBeing NiceSovereignTreasuryMattressesTreasury Bill
Author:Warren Buffett
Create image