Timeless Wisdom: Warren Buffett Quotes on Life, Success and Beyond

Overview

“Buy low, sell high” – who hasn’t heard these golden words of the business world? These simple yet powerful words capture the heart of investing, and few people do it better than Warren Buffett. 

Known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” Buffett is one of the most successful and world’s best investors of all time. Nurtured with a  sense of business, he got his first stock at just 11 years old, now owning a wealth of over $80.9 billion by 2019, making him the richest man on earth at that time.

What truly sets Buffett apart, though, is his wisdom. It’s not just about his investment strategies, but also his approach to managing emotions, leadership, and life as a whole. In this blog, we’ll explore Warren Buffett’s insights on success, life, investing, money, emotions, and more. 

Get ready for a dose – or perhaps an overdose – of inspiration, because when Buffett speaks, the world listens.

Famous Warren Buffett Quotes

Buffett’s rules of investing goes beyond just words and numbers, they represent a philosophy for living life well. 

So, here are his principles that guide not just investment decisions but also a fulfilling lifestyle.

Buffett’s No 1 Rule On Investment Is..

“The most important investment you can make is in yourself.”

Because let’s be real! There is no one who can take you forward than yourself in life. Warren Buffet believed in educating oneself and constant learning. He boasts of reading over 500 pages a day and encourages spending time in personal growth. 

There are some famous books on Warren Buffett and his investment theory:

• The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America 
• WARREN BUFFETT AND THE INTERPRETATION OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
• 100 Success Lessons from Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett Quotes on Investing

Now that we want to know more about this legend, let’s begin with his area of expertise – investment -which makes him an exclusive being to remember in history. 

The Biggest Rule to live by while investing is..

“Rule No. 1: Never lose money. 

Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1.”

Here are some more wise words..

“Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”

“The stock market is designed to transfer money from the Active to the Patient.”

“Our favourite holding period is forever.”

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”

“If you aren’t thinking about owning a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes.”

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

“It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”

Warren Buffett Quotes On Stock Market

Here some wisdom he spilled on his take on the stock market..

“The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.”

“Buy a stock the way you would buy a house. Understand and like it such that you’d be content to own it in the absence of any market.”

“In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.”

“I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”

“The best chance to deploy capital is when things are going down.”

“The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.”

“You pay a very high price in the stock market for a cheery consensus.”

“When trillions of dollars are managed by Wall Streeters charging high fees, it will usually be the managers who reap outsized profits, not the clients.”

“If you aren’t willing to own a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes.”

“It’s better to buy a great company at a fair price than a fair company at a great price.”

“The most common cause of low prices is pessimism – sometimes pervasive, sometimes specific to a company or industry. We want to do business in such an environment, not because we like pessimism but because we like the prices it produces.”

“Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.”

“I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.”

Warren Buffett Quotes on Business

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

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

“The best thing I did was to choose the right heroes.”

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

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.”

“It’s not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.”

“Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it’s not going to get the business.”

“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”

“The business schools reward difficult complex behaviour more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.”

“I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.”

“Honesty is a very expensive gift; don’t expect it from cheap people.”

“Good businesses are built on good relationships.”

Warren Buffett Quotes on Success

What makes him successful is not the wins, but the mistakes he made. Here is a sneak peak on his learnings of those mistakes:

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

“Success in investing doesn’t correlate with IQ once you’re above the level of 25. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.”

“I measure success by how many people love me.”

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

“It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.”

“You can’t make a good deal with a bad person.”

“Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.”

“Predicting rain doesn’t count, building arks does.”

“If you’re in the luckiest 1% of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99%.”

“It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.”

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

“You don’t have to be a genius to be successful. But you need discipline, patience, and good habits.”

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”

“What the wise do in the beginning, fools do in the end.”

“I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.”

Warren Buffett Quotes on Money

Let’s talk about creating value in the new world and what legendary investor Warren Buffett thinks about it. 

“Money is not everything. Make sure you earn a lot before speaking such nonsense.”

The pun pushes all the philosophies aside, showing a clear glass to see through the world. As much as he loves to stay humble, he kept his money matters straight. Here are his key learnings on Money:

“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”

“You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”

“Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.”

“The rich invest in time, the poor invest in money.”

“The more you learn, the more you earn.”

“You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out.”

“I don’t have a problem with guilt about money. The way I see it is that my money represents an enormous amount of claim checks on society.”

“Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.”

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

“Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.”

“Money is only a byproduct of good decisions.”

“It’s nice to have a lot of money, but you don’t want to keep it around forever.”

“Wealth should be used as a tool for good, not just for personal gain.”

“I don’t care how much money you have; if nobody loves you, your life is a disaster.”

Warren Buffett Quotes On Life & Motivation 

Let’s start with our favourite one..

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

Because there is no treasure in life other than the beauty of nature that keeps us alive. By sharing this, he shares his best investment advice on – “an investment you can hold forever”. 

Here are some more from his archive:

“It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours, and you’ll drift in that direction.”

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

“I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.”

“Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.”

“It’s not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.”

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

“The best thing I did was to choose the right heroes.”

“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”

“Don’t pass up something that’s attractive today because you think you will find something better tomorrow.”   

“Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future.”

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

15 Interesting Facts About Warren Buffet

Now before we wrap, let’s take a sneak peak into a few interesting facts of Mr Buffett’s life:

1. An Early Bird: Warren Buffett bought his first stock at 11. Most of us were just figuring out school, but he was already investing!

2. Mini Entrepreneur at 6: At just 6 years old, Buffett sold chewing gum and Coke bottles door-to-door. 

3. Rejected by Harvard: He didn’t get into Harvard Business School, but it led him to learn from another legend, Benjamin Graham, at Columbia.

4. Millionaire Before 30: By running his own investment partnership, Buffett hit his first million before turning 30.

5. Berkshire Hathaway Accident: He bought into Berkshire Hathaway as a textile company but turned it into the investment giant it is today.

6. Loves to Read: He reads around 500-600 pages a day— he really is a bookworm!

7. Lives in the Same Old House: Despite being a billionaire, Buffett still lives in the house he bought in 1958 for just $31,500 in Omaha.

8. Keeps it Simple: He’s a billionaire but still enjoys McDonald’s for breakfast and drives a simple car. No fancy private jets but a simple lifestyle.

9. Big on Charity: Buffett’s pledged to give away 99% of his fortune to charity, with most going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Till now, he has donated approximately $57 billion. 

10. Wasn’t Into Tech: For years, he avoided investing in tech stocks, but when he finally did, Apple became his biggest win.

11. Only Sent One Email: Buffett isn’t tech-savvy and has only ever sent one email. Talk about keeping it old-school!

12. Baseball Star Moment: He once won a baseball contest at a Yankees game

 Well, even Buffett’s got hidden talents.

13. Fired for Being Nice: Early on, he got fired from a grocery store for giving a regular customer an extra discount. 

14. Great Bond with Bill Gates: He and Bill Gates weren’t always friends, but now they play bridge together and hang out often.

15. Learns from Mistakes: Buffett admits some of his investments, like Dexter Shoe, were big flops, costing him billions. Maybe even billionaires mess up sometimes.

Buffett’s journey is proof that a simple life, constant learning, and staying humble can lead to big success.

In A Nutshell

Warren Buffett’s story is truly impressive and he is well-known for his investment style called value investing. He talks a lot about the importance of patience, thinking long-term, and how small, smart decisions can really add up over time. 

Buffett also stresses being humble, learning from your mistakes, and sticking to what you know best. His quotes remind us to focus on what truly matters, whether it’s in investing or everyday life, and to always act with honesty. Cheers to this legend who gave a timeless treasure, beyond numbers or figures.

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