Charlie Munger Quotes

“Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day.”
― Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don’t believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody’s that smart.”
― Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets—and can be lost in a heartbeat.”
― Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Envy is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at. There’s a lot of pain and no fun. Why would you want to get on that trolley?”
― Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“If something is too hard, we move on to something else. What could be simpler than that?”
― Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean (merely average performance).”
― Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Man’s imperfect, limited-capacity brain easily drifts into working with what’s easily available to it. And the brain can’t use what it can’t remember or when it’s blocked from recognizing because it’s heavily influenced by one or more psychological tendencies bearing strongly on it … the deep structure of the human mind requires that the way to full scope competency of virtually any kind is to learn it all to fluency—like it or not.”
― Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Learning from the success and failure of others is the fastest way to get smarter and wiser without a lot of pain.”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“We both insist on a lot of time being available almost every day to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. We read and think. So Warren and I do more reading and thinking and less doing than most people in business.”
― Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Warren talks about these discounted cash flows. I’ve never seen him do one.”
― Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“In Buffett’s view, if you cannot write it down, you have not thought it through.”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Buffett has said that if you cannot explain why you failed after you have made a mistake, the business was too complex for you.”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“All the equity investors, in total, will surely bear a performance disadvantage per annum equal to the total croupiers’ costs they have jointly elected to bear. This is an inescapable fact of life. And it is also inescapable that exactly half of the investors will get a result below the median result after the croupiers’ take, which median result may well be somewhere between unexciting and lousy.”
― Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“I observe what works and what doesn’t and why.”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“If you want to get rich, you’ll need a few decent ideas where you really know what you’re doing. Then you’ve got to have the courage to stick with them and take the ups and downs. Not very complicated, and it’s very old-fashioned.”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“All skills attenuate with disuse.”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Munger likes to say that a year in which you do not change your mind on some big idea that is important to you is a wasted year.”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“people who cannot be alone with their own thoughts are terrible candidates to become successful investors.”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Everyone makes mistakes, but Munger has repeatedly said that staying away from the really big mistakes, like cocaine and heroin, is vital. As an analogy, Munger has pointed out that if you are floating down a river and there are really dangerous whirlpools that are killing many people on a daily basis, you do not go anywhere near that whirlpool. Munger also pointed to alcoholism as a major cause of failure in life. His point on substance abuse is simple: why play dice with something that can ruin your life forever? His timeless advice in every setting is to avoid situations with a massive downside and a small upside (negative optionality).”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Three things ruin people: drugs, liquor, and leverage.”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Too much competency and no gumption is no good.”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Successful investors … must possess an interest in the process. It’s no different from carpentry, gardening, or parenting. If money management is not enjoyable, then a lousy job inevitably results, and, unfortunately, most people enjoy finance about as much as they do root canal work.”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“By being aware of your own limitations, keeping important decisions inside your circle of competence, and avoiding decisions that are too hard, it is reasonable to feel more confident in your abilities.”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“We have three baskets: in, out, and too tough. … We have to have a special insight, or we’ll put it in the “too tough” basket. —CHARLIE MUNGER, WESCO ANNUAL MEETING, 2002”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Robert Hagstrom wrote a wonderful book on worldly wisdom entitled Investing: The Last Liberal Art, in which he states that “each discipline entwines with, and in the process strengthens, every other. From each discipline the thoughtful person draws significant mental models, the key ideas that combine to produce a cohesive understanding.”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Bridge requires a continual effort to assess probabilities in at best marginally knowable situations, and players need to make hundreds of decisions in a single session, often balancing expected gains and losses. But players must also continually make peace with good decisions that lead to bad outcomes, both one’s own decisions and those of a partner. Just this peacemaking skill is required if one is to invest wisely in an unknowable world. —RICHARD ZECKHAUSER, 2006”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“The right way to think is the way Zeckhauser plays bridge. It’s just that simple. —CHARLIE MUNGER, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL, 1995”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Ben Graham told a story forty years ago that illustrates why investment professionals behave as they do. An oil prospector, moving to his heavenly reward, was met by St. Peter with bad news. “You’re qualified for residence,” said St. Peter, “but, as you can see, the compound reserved for oil men is packed. There’s no way to squeeze you in.” After thinking a moment, the prospector asked if he might say just four words to the present occupants. That seemed harmless to St. Peter, so the prospector cupped his hands and yelled, “Oil discovered in hell.” Immediately, the gate to the compound opened and all of the oil men marched out to head for the nether regions. Impressed, St. Peter invited the prospector to move in and make himself comfortable. The prospector paused. “No,” he said, “I think I’ll go along with the rest of the boys. There might be some truth to that rumor after all.” —WARREN BUFFETT, 1985”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“Charlie Munger, the Easter Bunny, Superman, and a successful forecaster of an investment bank find themselves in their own corner of a large square-shaped trading floor. In the center of the room is a large stack of $100 bills. If each of them starts racing toward the center of the floor at the same time, who gets the money? The answer is Munger, because the other three don’t exist!”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor

“the objective of investment (in general) is not to buy at fair value, but to purchase with a margin of safety.”
― Tren Griffin, Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor