Warren Buffett on Business Quotes

"Predicting rain doesn't count. Building arks does."

"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 130 IQ."

"The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything."

"You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong."

"Interest rates are to asset prices what gravity is to the apple. When there are low interest rates, there is a very low gravitational pull on asset prices."

"In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield."

"What the wise do in the beginning, fools do in the end."

"Managers that always promise to 'make the numbers' will at some point be tempted to make up the numbers."

"The business world is not like the Olympics; you don't get extra points for the degree of difficulty."

"The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect."

"In a commodity-type business, you're only as smart as your dumbest competitor."

"Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble."

"Business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective."

"You can't make a good deal with a bad person."

"I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will."

"Keep things simple and don't swing for the fences. When promised quick profits, respond with a quick 'no.'"

"Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway."

"Honesty is a very expensive gift. Don't expect it from cheap people."

"Never invest in a business you cannot understand."

"Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal."

"In the world of business, the people who are most successful are those who are doing what they love."

"Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks."

"If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the pucker is, you're the pucker."

"The best thing that happens to us is when a great company gets into temporary trouble. We want to buy them when they're on the operating table."

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."

"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."

"Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked."

"An economic moat is a structural barrier that protects a company's profit margins from the competition."

"It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price."

"If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die."

"Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing."

"The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging."

"Management's job is to optimize the long-term value of the business."