Warren Buffett— laws, rules, secrets. The best quotations and sayings with comments
Managers thinking about accounting issues should never forget one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite riddles:
“How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg?”
The answer is: “Four, because calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg”.
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.
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.
The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect... You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd.
If you don't feel comfortable owning something for 10 years, then don't own it for 10 minutes.
Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.
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.
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to lose it.