Tao of Charlie Munger: A Compilation of Quotes from Berkshire Hathaway's Vice Chairman on Life, Business, and the Pursuit of Wealth With Commentary by David Clark

by David Clark

“Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant.”

remember that good ideas are rare—when the odds are greatly in your favor, bet heavily.”

Just reading books on business isn’t enough; one should also add in a couple of semesters of accounting (which is the language of business), a couple of semesters of economics, and a good course on central banking so one understands the power of the Federal Reserve Bank to come to the market’s rescue (most MBA courses are sorely lacking in this). Then one will be in a good position to start looking for a winning investment. But then the search for a good investment takes even more reading—so count on reading two or three hundred annual reports a year and the Wall Street Journal every day.

For most people it is easier and safer if they just save their money, buy into an index fund anytime there is a bear market, and then just hold it forever. Then when they retire, they can sell it off as needed.

if a democracy can’t find the strength to control its financial institutions, eventually the people will empower a despot who will.

thought the repealing of Glass-Steagall in 1999 was an invitation to banking folly because it allowed commercial banks to function as investment banks and speculate with depositors’ money.

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wasn’t greed that drove our grandparents to work so hard, it was the fear that they wouldn’t be able to pay the rent and their family would go hungry. Today that fear is gone. It has been replaced with a sense of entitlement that demands that health care be free, that a college education be free, that free food and housing be provided if one is out of work. Our nation is losing its will to work, maybe not because it has grown lazy but because it has lost its fear of not working.

“In marriage, you shouldn’t look for someone with good looks and character. You look for someone with low expectations.”

I’ve heard Warren say a half a dozen times, ‘It’s not greed that drives the world, but envy.’