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1. Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.
2. A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
3. Beware of geeks bearing formulas.
4. Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.
5. Never ask a barber if you need a haircut
6. 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.
7. We’ve long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune tellers look good. Even now, Charlie and I continue to believe that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up in a safe place, away from children and also from grown-ups who behave in the market like children.
8. If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.
9. If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
10. It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
11. Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.
12. Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.
13. Our favorite holding period is forever.
14. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
15. There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
16. Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.
17. We believe that according the name ‘investors’ to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a ‘romantic.’
18. We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.
19. We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.
20. You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.
21. Lethargy bordering on sloth remains the cornerstone of our investing style.