50 Warren Buffett Quotes to Live By

Written By Ben Broadwater

Updated June 14, 2023

If you're looking for inspiration and guidance from one of the most successful investors of all time, look no further than Warren Buffett quotes. Here are 50 of his most famous and insightful quotes to help you achieve your goals and live a fulfilling life.

warren buffett quotes

50 Warren Buffett Quotes to Live By

  1. "It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price."
  2. "The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient."
  3. "It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked."
  4. "In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield."
  5. "Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."
  6. "Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No.1."
  7. "Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."
  8. "It's not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results."
  9. "Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing."
  10. "Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble."
  11. "The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything."
  12. "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."
  13. "The best thing I did was choose the right heroes."
  14. "If you're in the luckiest 1% of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99%."
  15. "You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong."
  16. "We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful."
  17. "Our favorite holding period is forever."
  18. "The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging."
  19. "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."
  20. "The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective."
  21. "If you're not willing to own a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes."
  22. "Diversification is protection against ignorance. It makes little sense if you know what you are doing."
  23. "The only time to buy these is on a day with no 'y' in it."
  24. "When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact."
  25. "I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will."
  26. "If a business does well, the stock eventually follows."
  27. "You do things when the opportunities come along. I've had periods in my life when I've had a bundle of ideas come along, and I've had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I'll do something. If not, I won't do a damn thing."
  28. "You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong."
  29. "The most important investment you can make is in yourself."
  30. "I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over."
  31. "In the short term, the market is a voting machine, but in the long term, it is a weighing machine."
  32. "Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in limousines to get advice from those who take the subway."
  33. "If you're not willing to react with equanimity to a market price decline of 50% two or three times a century, you're not fit to be a common shareholder, and you deserve the mediocre result you're going to get compared to the people who do have the temperament, who can be more philosophical about these market fluctuations."
  34. "The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth."
  35. "The best investment you can make is in yourself. The more you learn, the more you earn."
  36. "A public opinion poll is no substitute for thought."
  37. "I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years."
  38. "If you can't read the scoreboard, you don't know the score. If you don't know the score, you can't tell the winners from the losers."
  39. "You don't need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with the 130 IQ."
  40. "There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult."
  41. "The biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital."
  42. "The only way to get love is to be lovable. It's very irritating if you have a lot of money. You'd like to think you could write a check: I'll buy a million dollars' worth of love. But it doesn't work that way. The more you give love away, the more you get."
  43. "I am a better investor because I am a businessman, and a better businessman because I am an investor."
  44. "I never ask my dentist if I should buy a stock."
  45. "If you don't feel comfortable owning something for 10 years, then don't own it for 10 minutes."
  46. "The four most dangerous words in investing are: 'this time it's different.'"
  47. "Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken."
  48. "There's a lot of wisdom in not getting so far ahead of your audience that they don't understand what you're talking about."
  49. "You don't have to be a genius to invest well. But you do have to have patience."
  50. "When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results."

Warren Buffett Quotes – Final Thoughts

These Warren Buffett quotes are just a few examples of the many pearls of wisdom he has shared over the years. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned business professional, or simply someone looking for inspiration and guidance in life, his words of wisdom are sure to resonate with you.

In addition to his quotes, Warren Buffett is also known for his investing philosophy, which emphasizes the importance of value investing and long-term thinking. He is a master of identifying undervalued companies and holding onto them for years, and his success in the stock market has made him one of the wealthiest people in the world.

So, if you're looking to learn more about Warren Buffett and his investment philosophy, there's no shortage of resources available to you. From books and articles to interviews and documentaries, there's plenty of information out there to help you understand how he has achieved such incredible success over the years.

In conclusion, Warren Buffett quotes are a source of inspiration and guidance for people around the world. His insightful words of wisdom have helped countless individuals achieve their goals and live fulfilling lives, and his investing philosophy has made him one of the most successful investors of all time. So, if you're looking to learn more about what makes Warren Buffett tick, start by reading his quotes and studying his approach to investing. You may just find that his wisdom can help you achieve your own goals and aspirations in life.

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