Charlie Munger on Wealth Quotes

"If you keep learning all the time, you have a huge advantage."

"Capitalism without failure is like religion without hell."

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

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

"Spend less than you make; always be saving something. Put it into a tax-deferred account. Over time, it will begin to amount to something. This is such a no-brainer."

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

"Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean."

"An isolated fact is not very useful unless it's part of a system. You've got to have models in your head."

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

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

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

"Opportunity cost is a huge filter in life. If you’ve got two suitors who are both eager to have you, but one is way better than the other, you’re going to choose that one."

"Success means being very patient, but aggressive when it's time."

"Being rational is a moral imperative. You should never be stupider than you have to be."

"Beta and modern portfolio theory and the like—none of it makes any sense to me."

"Most people are too irritable. You have to be willing to wait for the right opportunity."

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

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

"You should have a huge margin of safety in everything you do."

"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."

"The first $100,000 is a bitch, but you gotta do it. I don't care what you have to do—if it means walking everywhere and not eating anything that wasn't purchased with a coupon, find a way to get your hands on $100,000."

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

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

"Our job is to find a few intelligent things to do, not to maximize every opportunity we have."

"Reliability is the most important quality in a partner, and in a business."

"Over the long term, it's hard for a stock to earn much more than the business which underlies it earns."

"I met the towering intellectuals in books, not in the classroom, which is natural. My family was the sort of people who were always reading."

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

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

"Go to bed smarter than when you woke up."

"Like many people, I have a list of things I don't want to do, and I'm very good at not doing them."

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

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