Charlie Munger, the legendary vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and long-time business partner of Warren Buffett, left behind not just an empire of wealth but also a treasure trove of timeless wisdom. Known for his wit, blunt honesty, and razor-sharp intellect, Munger’s words continue to inspire entrepreneurs, investors, and everyday people alike.
- “Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up.”
- “Those who keep learning will keep rising in life.”
- “Never stop reading. That’s the way to success.”
- “I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent. But they are learning machines.”
- “Invert, always invert: Many hard problems are best solved when they are addressed backward.”
- “The iron rule of nature is: you get what you reward for. If you want ants to come, put sugar on the floor.”
- “The big money is not in the buying or the selling, but in the waiting.”
- “It’s waiting that helps you as an investor, and a lot of people just can’t stand to wait.”
- “A great business at a fair price is superior to a fair business at a great price.”
- “The desire to get rich fast is pretty dangerous.”
- “The wise ones bet heavily when the world offers them that opportunity. They bet big when they have the odds. And the rest of the time, they don’t.”
- “If you’re not willing to react with equanimity to a market price decline of 50% two or three times a century, you’re not fit to be a common shareholder.”
- “It takes character to sit there with all that cash and do nothing. I didn’t get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities.”
- “It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.”
- “The human mind is a lot like the human egg. The egg permits only one sperm, and the human brain has a great deal of difficulty accepting a new idea once it’s been formed.”
- “The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want.”
- “Acknowledging what you don’t know is the dawning of wisdom.”
- “We have three baskets for investing: yes, no, and too tough to understand.”
- “Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant.”
- “If something is too hard, we move on to something else. What could be more simpler than that?”
- “The best way to get a good spouse is to deserve a good spouse.”
- “You don’t have to be brilliant, only a little wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long, long time.”
- “The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more.”
- “You don’t have to be in all the time, but when you’re in, you’ve got to be really in.”
- “Live within your income and save so that you can invest.”
- “The great lesson in microeconomics is to discriminate between when technology is going to help you and when it’s going to kill you.”
- “It’s not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid.”
- “A lot of people with high IQs are terrible investors because they’ve got terrible temperaments.”
- “We have a passion for keeping things simple.”
- “The best armor of old age is a well-spent life.”
- “You should avoid sloth and unreliability.”
- “The habit of committing far more time to learning and thinking than to doing is no accident.”
- “You need patience, discipline, and an ability to take losses without going crazy.”
- “Assiduity is the ability to sit down on your ass until you do it.”
- “All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.”
- “Knowing what you don’t know is the real key to wisdom.”
- “The big money is in the waiting, not the thinking.”
Charlie Munger’s wisdom was about living a disciplined, rational, and purposeful life. His insights teach us patience, humility, and the value of continuous learning.
