Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger

by Charles T. Munger

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world” (Einstein); never interrupt it unnecessarily.

At Berkshire Hathaway, Warren and I raised the prices of See’s Candies a little faster than others might have.

So you can’t learn psychology the way your professors teach it. You’ve got to learn everything they teach, but you’ve got to learn a lot more that they don’t teach, because they don’t handle their own subject correctly.

When people get bad news, they hate the messenger.

I like the Navy system. If you’re a captain in the Navy and you’ve been up for 24 hours straight and have to go to sleep, and you turn the ship over to a competent first mate in tough conditions and he takes the ship aground, clearly through no fault of yours, they don’t court-martial you, but your naval career is over.

Einstein has a marvelous statement on that: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no more simple.”

“The company that needs a new machine tool and hasn’t bought it is already paying for it.”

Over time, his chauffeur memorized the lecture and said, “Would you mind, Professor Planck, because it’s so boring to stay in our routine, if I gave the lecture in Munich and you just sat in front wearing my chauffeur’s hat?” Planck said, “Why not?” And the chauffeur got up and gave this long lecture on quantum mechanics, after which a physics professor stood up and asked a perfectly ghastly question. The speaker said, “Well, I’m surprised that in an advanced city like Munich I get such an elementary question. I’m going to ask my chauffeur to reply.”

How to Run a Grocery Store and a Few Things I Have Learned about Fishing.

“We are too soon old and too late smart.”

Advertisers know about the power of mere association. You won’t see Coke advertised alongside some account of the death of a child. Instead, Coke ads picture life as happier than reality.

At Berkshire, there is a common injunction: “Always tell us the bad news promptly. It is only the good news that can wait.”