Warren Buffett is one of the greatest investors of all time and his words are closely followed by investors. As CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett has generated nearly 20 percent annualized returns for shareholders from 1965 to 2023, compared to 10.2 percent for the S&P 500.
Buffett’s ability to speak about complex topics in simple terms and explain his investment philosophy so clearly makes him one of the most quotable investors ever.
Here are some of the best Warren Buffett quotes of all time.
1. “A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”
This simple rule shows how important Buffett thinks managing your emotions is in order to be a good investor. Markets are made up of human beings who get overly optimistic at times and overly pessimistic at other times. Understanding these two emotions can help you take advantage of market conditions and profit as an investor.
2. “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”
Buffett got his start buying the cheapest stocks he could find, but over time he evolved to focus on businesses with strong underlying economics. While poor businesses may be able to be purchased cheaply and sold for a profit after a slight improvement in results, good businesses reward their shareholders over time as the business grows and compounds.
3. “Price is what you pay; value is what you get.”
Buffett is probably the most famous practitioner of value investing, which involves buying stocks at a discount to their intrinsic value. When Buffett talks about value, he’s talking about what the underlying business will produce for its shareholders in terms of earnings and cash flow. Then he hopes to pay an attractive price that accounts for the business’s underlying fundamentals.
4. “Big opportunities come infrequently. When it’s raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble.”
Here, Buffett highlights the importance of making big bets when prices are attractive. He’s long been an advocate for talented investors concentrating investments in their best ideas. After buying a stake in Apple in 2016, the position grew to more than 50 percent of Berkshire’s equity portfolio, though Buffett has been selling the iPhone maker’s shares in 2024.
5. “At the business school, I tell them that they would all be better off if when they got out of school somebody gave them a card with 20 punches on it and every time they made an investment decision, they used up a punch.”
Students from many different universities have been lucky to hear Buffett share his business advice with them over the years. This quote highlights the importance of thinking carefully about an investment before buying. Buffett thinks most investors would end up with better results if they could only make 20 investments in their life because it would force them to focus on the best opportunities and buy a lot when they arose.
6. “You don’t get paid for activity, you only get paid for being right.”
There are always people in the investment world who are throwing out new ideas or things that they think you should be doing in your portfolio. But having a lot of activity in your portfolio could generate fees and taxes that cost you as an investor. Activity isn’t your friend as an investor, it’s being right about the investments you make, regardless of how frequently they occur.
7. “The big question about how people behave is whether they’ve got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard.”
This quote shows the importance of living your life on your own terms and not worrying too much about what other people think about you. It can also serve you well as an investor to think about your own financial goals and not get too wrapped up in worrying whether someone else is doing better than you.
Buffett says you should ask yourself if you’d rather be known as the world’s greatest investor, but in reality you have the world’s worst record? Or be known as the world’s worst investor, but actually have the best record?
8. “Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for ten years.”
Buffett has long touted the benefits of being a long-term investor, but this quote also emphasizes the importance of focusing on the business you own, rather than how its stock price moves around each day.
Many investors seem to have more of a trading mentality when they buy a stock, selling it quickly for a small profit or abandoning it if the price falls by a certain amount. But a rational business owner would never take that approach to buying and selling an entire business. Always remember that when you’re buying a stock, you’re buying an ownership stake in a real business.
Editorial Disclaimer: All investors are advised to conduct their own independent research into investment strategies before making an investment decision. In addition, investors are advised that past investment product performance is no guarantee of future price appreciation.
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