Gems from Warren Buffett: Wit and Wisdom from 34 Years of Letters to Shareholders

by Mark Gavagan

My own attitude toward the (new corporate) jet can be summarized by the prayer attributed, apocryphally I'm sure, to St. Augustine as he contemplated leaving a life of secular pleasures to become a priest. Battling the conflict between intellect and glands,

Many of our CEOs are independently wealthy and work only because they love what they do. They are volunteers, not mercenaries. Because no one can offer them a job they would enjoy more, they can’t be lured away.”

You learn a great deal about a person when you purchase a business from him and he then stays on to run it as an employee rather than as an owner.

‘It's probably true that hard work never killed anyone, but I figure why take the chance.’

Berkshire is my first love and one that will never fade: At the Harvard Business School last year, a student asked me when I planned to retire and I replied, ‘About five to ten years after I die.’

All I want to know is where I'm going to die so I'll never go there.’

“I ignored Comte’s advice - ‘the intellect should be the servant of the heart, but not its slave’ - and believed what I preferred to believe.”

I told you last year about our loss liabilities was far from true - and that makes three years in a row of error. If the physiological rules that applied to Pinocchio were to apply to me, my nose would now draw crowds.”

“According the name "investors" to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a romantic.”

“Price and value can differ; price is what you give, value is what you get.”

“An iron law of business is that growth eventually dampens exceptional economics.”

I wouldn’t be surprised to see our share of Coke’s annual earnings exceed 100% of what we paid for the investment. Time is the friend of the wonderful business.”

When Richard Branson, the wealthy owner of Virgin Atlantic Airways, was asked how to become a millionaire, he had a quick answer: ‘There's really nothing to it. Start as a billionaire and then buy an airline.’

Big opportunities come infrequently. When it’s raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble.”

We have never attempted to forecast what the stock market is going to do in the next month or the next year, and we are not trying to do that now. But, as I point out in the enclosed article, equity investors currently seem wildly optimistic in their expectations about future returns.”

No matter how great the talent or effort, some things just take time: you can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”

There's no use running if you're on the wrong road.”

The rear-view mirror is always clearer than the windshield.”

So what if you can’t read Chinese? Just buy a copy and carry it around; it will make you look urbane and erudite.“

As one investor said in 2009 (regarding the effects of the Financial Crisis): ‘This is worse than divorce. I’ve lost half my net worth – and I still have my wife.’

In a nine-hour period, we sold 1,053 pairs of Justin boots, 12,416 pounds of See’s candy, 8,000 Dairy Queen Blizzards® and 8,800 Quikut knives (that’s 16 knives per minute). But you can do better. Remember: Anyone who says money can’t buy happiness simply hasn’t learned where to shop.”