30 Warren Buffett Quotes on Success

  • After all, you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.
  • It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
  • I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life.
  • Your premium brand had better be delivering something wonderful, or it’s not going to get the business.
  • When forced to choose, I will not trade even a night’s sleep for the chance of extra profits.
  • If you’re in the luckiest 1 percent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 percent.
  • You can’t make a good deal with a bad person.
  • I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don’t like because you think it will look good on your resume. Isn’t that a little like saving up sex for your old age?
  • Never invest in a business you cannot understand.
  • No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.
  • Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
  • I really like my life. I’ve arranged my life so that I can do what I want.
  • If you don’t feel comfortable owning something for 10 years, then don’t own it for 10 minutes.
  • Never give up searching for the job that you’re passionate about. Try to find the job you’d have if you were independently rich. Forget about the pay. When you’re associating with the people that you love, doing what you love, it doesn’t get any better than that.
  • The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.
  • I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.
  • The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging.
  • Money is not everything. Make sure you earn a lot before speaking such nonsense.
  • It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.
  • You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.
  • You ought to be able to explain why you’re taking the job you’re taking, why you’re making the investment you’re making, or whatever it may be. And if it can’t stand applying pencil to paper, you’d better think it through some more. And if you can’t write an intelligent answer to those questions, don’t do it.
  • I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.
  • I don’t measure my life by the money I’ve made. Other people might, but I certainly don’t.
  • Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.
  • Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.
  • far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
  • Honesty is a very expensive gift, Don’t expect it from cheap people.
  • It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.
  • I’ve seen more people fail because of liquor and leverage — leverage being borrowed money. You really don’t need leverage in this world much. If you’re smart, you’re going to make a lot of money without borrowing.
  • Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future.