Charlie Munger on Vision Quotes

"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."

"It’s waiting that helps you as an investor, and a lot of people just can’t stand to wait."

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

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

"The great algorithm to remember in dealing with this is that you must have a lattice of mental models in your head."

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

"I think that, every time you saw the word EBITDA, you should substitute the word 'bullshit' earnings."

"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."

"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."

"A lot of people with high IQs are terrible investors because they’ve got terrible temperaments."

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

"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."

"Reliability is the first thing you need. If you're not reliable, it doesn't matter what your other virtues are."

"The habit of committing to a long-term goal and sticking to it is one of the most important things in life."

"We have three baskets for investing: yes, no, and too hard."

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

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

"The game of life is the game of everlasting learning. At least it is if you want to win."

"You must force yourself to consider opposing arguments. Especially when they challenge your best-loved ideas."

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

"Worldly wisdom is quite elementary, but its findings are quite powerful."

"Take a simple idea and take it seriously."

"If you want to be a good thinker, you must develop a mind that can jump the jurisdictional boundaries."

"You must have the models. And you must see the reality through the models."

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

"Opportunity comes to the prepared mind."

"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."

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

"I met the towering intellectuals in books, not in the classroom, which is natural."

"To the man with only a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

"We have a passion for keeping things simple."

"Extreme patience combined with extreme decisiveness."