Charlie Munger on Priorities Quotes

"The best thing a human being can do is help another human being know more."

"It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent."

"Live within your income and save so that you can invest. Learn what you need to learn."

"Acknowledging what you don't know is the dawning of wisdom."

"Knowing what you don't know is more useful than being brilliant."

"Avoiding stupidity is easier than seeking brilliance."

"Developing the habit of mastering the multiple models which underlie reality is the best thing you can do."

"Rationality is of the highest priority. You must see the world as it is, not as you wish it to be."

"The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want."

"Opportunity comes to the prepared mind."

"The first rule of a happy life is low expectations."

"You should have a checklist. You need to prioritize the risks you are willing to take."

"Our job is to find a few intelligent things to do, not to keep up with every change in the world."

"I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines."

"I have a 'too hard' pile and I just keep things out of it. I'm not looking for hard problems to solve."

"I tried to get rid of my worst business errors as fast as I could."

"If you skillfully follow the multidisciplinary path, you will never wish to come back. It would be like cutting off your hands."

"We read a lot. I don't know anyone who's wise who doesn't read a lot. But that's not enough: You have to have a temperament to grab the right ideas and do something."

"Most people are too busy doing to spend much time thinking."

"Being short on time is often a result of being long on ego and poor on priorities."

"Simplicity has a way of improving performance by enabling us to better understand what we are doing."

"If you don't get this elementary, but mildly unnatural, mathematics of elementary probability into your repertoire, then you go through a long life like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest."

"You don't have to be brilliant, only a little bit wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long time."

"The iron rule of nature is: you get what you reward. If you want ants to come, you put sugar on the floor."

"Invert, always invert: Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backward."

"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."

"Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean."

"We have three baskets for investing: yes, no, and too tough to understand."

"You need to have a passionate interest in knowing why things are happening. That way of thinking, held over long periods, gradually improves your ability to focus on reality."

"Extreme patience combined with extreme decisiveness."

"We have a passion for keeping things simple."

"Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up."

"The big money is not in the buying and the selling, but in the waiting."