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Warren Buffett Quotes

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Famous Warren Buffett Quotes

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

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Book:Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha
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“If you’re in the luckiest one per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.”

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Author:Warren Buffett
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“In looking for people to hire, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you.”

PeopleIfsInspirationalFirstsLooksTwoMotivationalThreeEnergyBusinessEducationQualityIdentityIntegrityIntelligenceHypocrisyWholenessHiringBuffetsIntegrity And CharacterIntegrity CharacterHonor And IntegrityKnowledge Of The WorldTrust And RespectLeadership IntegrityPersonal IntegrityEthics And IntegrityEmployee InspirationalMoral IntegrityMorals And Integrity
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“Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir Isaac's talents didn't extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, 'I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.' If he had not been traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well have gone on to discover the Fourth Law of Motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases.”

IfsMenWellsLongI CanWholeMightLawThreeLostStarsLossBusinessGoneSeaTalentMovementReturnGeniusIncreaseMadnessInvestmentSouthInvestingInvestorsBubblesFourthLong AgoExplainingNewtonDecreaseBundlesBuffetsIsaacHis LossLaws Of MotionEfficient Markets
Author:Warren Buffett
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“Would your reply possibly be this? Well, it all depends on what my tax rate will be on the gain you're saying we're going to make. If the taxes are too high, I would rather leave the money in my savings account, earning a quarter of 1 percent. Only in Grover Norquist's imagination does such a response exist.”

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“Intrinsic value can be defined simply: It is the discounted value of the cash that can be taken out of a business during its remaining life. The calculation of intrinsic value, though, is not so simple. As our definition suggests, intrinsic value is an estimate rather than a precise figure, and it is additionally an estimate that must be changed if interest rates move or forecasts of future cash flows are revised.”

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Book:Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha
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“Investors should remember that their scorecard is not computed using Olympic-diving methods: Degree-of-difficulty doesn't count. If you are right about a business whose value is largely dependent on a single key factor that is both easy to understand and enduring, the payoff is the same as if you had correctly analyzed an investment alternative characterized by many constantly shifting and complex variables.”

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Author:Warren Buffett
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“If you aren't willing to own a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes. Put together a portfolio of companies whose aggregate earnings march upward over the years, and so also will the portfolio's market value.”

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Book:Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha
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“I happen to have a talent for allocating capital. But my ability to use that talent is completely dependent on the society I was born into. If I'd been born into a tribe of hunters, this talent of mine would be pretty worthless. I can't run very fast. I'm not particularly strong. I'd probably end up as some wild animal's dinner.”

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“I never buy anything unless I can fill out on a piece of paper my reasons. I may be wrong, but I would know the answer to that ...I'm paying $32 billion today for the Coca Cola Company because... If you can't answer that question, you shouldn't buy it. If you can answer that question, and you do it a few times, you'll make a lot of money.”

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Author:Warren Buffett
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“The major asset in this category is gold, currently a huge favorite of investors who fear almost all other assets, especially paper money (of whose value, as noted, they are right to be fearful). Gold, however, has two significant shortcomings, being neither of much use nor procreative. True, gold has some industrial and decorative utility, but the demand for these purposes is both limited and incapable of soaking up new production. Meanwhile, if you own one ounce of gold for an eternity, you will still own one ounce at its end.”

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Author:Warren Buffett
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“But, surprise - none of these blockbuster events made the slightest dent in Ben Graham's investment principles. Nor did they render unsound the negotiated purchases of fine businesses at sensible prices. Imagine the cost to us, then, if we had let a fear of unknowns cause us to defer or alter the deployment of capital. Indeed, we have usually made our best purchases when apprehensions about some macro event were at a peak. Fear is the foe of the faddist, but the friend of the fundamentalist.”

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Author:Warren Buffett
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“The worst sort of business is one that grows rapidly, requires significant capital to engender the growth, and then earns little or no money. Think airlines. Here a durable competitive advantage has proven elusive ever since the days of the Wright Brothers. Indeed, if a farsighted capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk, he would have done his successors a huge favor by shooting Orville down.”

IfsThinkingLittlesDoneGrowsGrowthWorstBrotherHugeAdvantageFavorsSignificantShootingAviationCapitalistProvenAirlineNo MoneyElusiveHawksSuccessorsCompetitive AdvantageKittiesWright Brothers
Book:Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha
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