Warren Buffett, often called the “Oracle of Omaha,” is one of the most successful investors in history. As the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, he has built a fortune worth billions through disciplined investing, patience, and a long-term outlook. But beyond his financial success, Buffett is admired for his plainspoken wisdom, humility, and practical approach to both business and life.
Over the decades, Buffett has shared timeless insights that extend far beyond the world of investing. His words carry lessons on money, risk, decision-making, and personal integrity.
- “Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget Rule No.1.”
- “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”
- “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”
- “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”
- “The stock market is designed to transfer money from the Active to the Patient.”
- “Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”
- “Never invest in a business you cannot understand.”
- “The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect.”
- “Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble.”
- “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
- “Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.”
- “The best investment you can make is in yourself.”
- “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”
- “The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.”
- “Wealth is not about having a lot of money; it’s about having a lot of options.”
- “It’s not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.”
- “Honesty is a very expensive gift. Don’t expect it from cheap people.”
- “Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future.”
- “You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.”
- “Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre.”
- “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”
- “In the world of business, the people who are most successful are those who are doing what they love.”
- “The more you learn, the more you earn.”
- “Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.”
- “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”
- “If you’re in the luckiest 1% of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99%.”
- “I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think.”
- “Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you how you’ll turn out.”
- “The best thing I did was to choose the right heroes.”
- “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.”
On Decision-Making & Discipline
- “An investor should act as though he had a lifetime decision card with just twenty punches on it.”
- “The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging.”
- “You don’t have to swing at every pitch. You can wait for your pitch.”
- “The difference between people who succeed and those who don’t is often patience.”
- “Our favorite holding period is forever.”
- “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.”
- “The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.”
- “You cannot make a good deal with a bad person.”
- “Risk is not knowing what you’re doing.”
- “What’s needed is a sound intellectual framework for making decisions and the ability to keep emotions from corroding that framework.”
- “I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.”
- “I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.”
- “The happiest people do not necessarily have the best things. They simply appreciate the things they have.”
- “If you can’t control your emotions, you can’t control your money.”
- “The most important investment you can make is in your own mind.”
- “What we learn from history is that people don’t learn from history.”
- “The rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.”
Warren Buffett’s words remind us that wealth is built with patience, discipline, and integrity and that success in life isn’t just measured by money, but by character, relationships, and wisdom.
