"Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding. Lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless."

"The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect. You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd."

"The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don't have to swing at everything -- you can wait for your pitch."

"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."

"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."

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

"If returns are going to be 7 or 8 percent and you're paying 1 percent for fees, that makes an enormous difference in how much money you're going to have in retirement."

Too-big-to-fail is not a fallback position at Berkshire. Instead, we will always arrange our affairs so that any requirements for cash we may conceivably have will be dwarfed by our own liquidity."

"We never want to count on the kindness of strangers in order to meet tomorrow's obligations. When forced to choose, I will not trade even a night's sleep for the chance of extra profits."

"Cash ... is to a business as oxygen is to an individual: never thought about when it is present, the only thing in mind when it is absent"

The one thing I will tell you is the worst investment you can have is cash. Everybody is talking about cash being king and all that sort of thing. Cash is going to become worth less over time. But good businesses are going to become worth more over time."

Charlie and I view the marketable common stocks that Berkshire owns as interests in businesses, not as ticker symbols to be bought or sold based on their "chart" patterns, the "target" prices of analysts, or the opinions of media pundits.

Success in investing doesn't correlate with IQ ... what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.

Buy into a company because you want to own it, not because you want the stock to go up.

Never invest in a business you cannot understand."

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

"If you don't feel comfortable making a rough estimate of the asset's future earnings, just forget it and move on."

"Buy companies with strong histories of profitability and with a dominant business franchise."

"We want products where people feel like kissing you instead of slapping you."

"One thing that could help would be to write down the reason you are buying a stock before your purchase. Write down "I am buying Microsoft at $300 billion because..." Force yourself to write this down. It clarifies your mind and discipline."

"The most important investment you can make is in yourself."

"One can best prepare themselves for the economic future by investing in your own education. If you study hard and learn at a young age, you will be in the best circumstances to secure your future."

"Read 500 pages like this every day. That's how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it."

"In the 54 years (Charlie Munger and I) have worked together, we have never forgone an attractive purchase because of the macro or political environment, or the views of other people. In fact, these subjects never come up when we make decisions."

"In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497."

"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."

"Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can't buy what is popular and do well."

"Don't get caught up with what other people are doing. Being a contrarian isn't the key but being a crowd follower isn't either. You need to detach yourself emotionally."

"You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right."

"After 25 years of buying and supervising a great variety of businesses, Charlie and I have not learned how to solve difficult business problems. What we have learned is to avoid them."

"Speculation is most dangerous when it looks easiest."

"Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies."

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

Half of all coin-flippers will win their first toss; none of those winners has an expectation of profit if he continues to play the game.

"What we learn from history is that people don't learn from history."

"There is nothing wrong with a 'know nothing' investor who realizes it. The problem is when you are a 'know nothing' investor but you think you know something."

"You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital."

We believe that a policy of portfolio concentration may well decrease risk if it raises, as it should, both the intensity with which an investor thinks about a business and the comfort-level he must feel with its economic characteristics before buying into it.

"Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they're doing."

Basically, when you get to my age, you'll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.

There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we've got a system that allows them to do it

I sent one e-mail in my life. I sent it to Jeff Raikes at Microsoft, and it ended up in court in Minneapolis, so I am one for one.

If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don't care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.

We're still in a recession. We're not gonna be out of it for a while, but we will get out.

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

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

Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn't. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value.

If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end - people like myself - should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it.

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