70 Famous Warren Buffett Quotes on Investing, Money & Life Wisdom
Warren Buffett (born 1930) is an American investor, business magnate, and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway who is widely regarded as the most successful investor of the twentieth century. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he bought his first stock at age eleven and filed his first tax return at thirteen, claiming a $35 deduction for his bicycle as a business expense for his paper route. A student of Benjamin Graham's value-investing philosophy at Columbia Business School, he launched his first investment partnership in 1956 with $105,100 pooled from family and friends. He transformed Berkshire Hathaway from a failing textile company into a $700-billion conglomerate while living in the same Omaha house he bought in 1958 for $31,500 and pledging to give away 99 percent of his wealth to charity.
Warren Buffett quotes have become the gold standard for financial wisdom, repeated in boardrooms, business schools, and kitchen-table conversations around the world. Known as the "Oracle of Omaha," Buffett built Berkshire Hathaway from a struggling New England textile mill into one of the most valuable companies on Earth -- amassing a personal fortune exceeding $100 billion while living in the same Omaha house he bought in 1958 for $31,500. What makes Buffett quotes about investing so enduring is their radical simplicity: buy wonderful businesses at fair prices, hold them forever, and never pretend to know what the stock market will do tomorrow. But Buffett's wisdom extends far beyond Wall Street. His annual shareholder letters, decades of Berkshire annual meeting Q&A sessions, and candid interviews reveal a thinker who cares as deeply about integrity, lifelong learning, and generosity as he does about compound interest. Whether you are looking for buffett quotes on the stock market to sharpen your portfolio strategy or seeking warren buffett quotes about life to guide bigger decisions, these 30 quotes -- each traced to a specific source -- will reward careful reading.
Who Is Warren Buffett?
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Born | August 30, 1930, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Role | Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway |
| Known For | Being the most successful investor in history, known as the "Oracle of Omaha" |
Key Achievements and Episodes
Buying His First Stock at Age 11
In 1941, 11-year-old Warren Buffett purchased three shares of Cities Service preferred stock at $38 per share. The stock quickly dropped to $27, and young Buffett anxiously held on until it recovered to $40, at which point he sold. The stock subsequently rose to $200. This early experience taught Buffett two lessons that would define his investment career: the importance of patience, and the danger of selling too early. By age 15, he had saved $6,000 (equivalent to roughly $100,000 today) from delivering newspapers, selling golf balls, and other entrepreneurial ventures.
The $10 Billion Coca-Cola Bet That Proved Value Investing
In 1988, Buffett purchased $1 billion worth of Coca-Cola stock, acquiring about 7% of the company. Analysts criticized the purchase as overpriced. But Buffett saw what he called an 'economic moat' — Coca-Cola's brand, global distribution network, and consumer habits created a nearly impregnable competitive advantage. He has never sold a single share. By 2024, Berkshire Hathaway's Coca-Cola stake was worth over $25 billion, and the dividends alone exceeded the original purchase price many times over. The investment became the textbook example of Buffett's philosophy: buy wonderful businesses at fair prices and hold them forever.
Pledging 99% of His Fortune to Charity
In 2006, Buffett made the largest charitable commitment in history, pledging to gradually donate 99% of his wealth — then approximately $44 billion — to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities. In 2010, he and Bill Gates co-founded The Giving Pledge, persuading over 230 billionaires worldwide to commit at least half their wealth to philanthropy. Despite donating over $55 billion by 2024, Buffett's remaining net worth continued to grow due to Berkshire Hathaway's performance. He continues to live in the same Omaha house he bought in 1958 for $31,500.
Who Was Warren Buffett?
Warren Edward Buffett (born August 30, 1930) grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Howard Buffett, a stockbroker and US congressman. His fascination with numbers and money started astonishingly early: at age six he bought six-packs of Coca-Cola from his grandfather's grocery store and resold individual bottles to neighbors for a profit. By age eleven he purchased his first stock -- three shares of Cities Service Preferred at $38 per share -- and learned a painful early lesson when he sold after the price dipped to $27, only to watch it later soar to $202. That experience planted the seed of patience that would define his entire career.
After graduating from the University of Nebraska, Buffett applied to Harvard Business School and was rejected. The setback turned into a stroke of fortune: he enrolled at Columbia Business School instead, where he studied under Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing. Graham's core idea -- that a stock is a fractional ownership in a real business, not a ticker symbol to trade -- became the bedrock of Buffett's philosophy. After working for Graham's investment fund in New York, Buffett returned to Omaha in 1956 and launched the Buffett Partnership with $105,100 in pooled capital from seven limited partners. Over the next thirteen years, the partnership delivered a compounded annual return of roughly 31 percent, never posting a losing year.
In 1965, Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway, a declining textile manufacturer in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He later called the acquisition one of his biggest mistakes -- the textile business was doomed -- but he brilliantly repurposed the company as a holding vehicle. Over the following decades, Buffett used Berkshire's insurance float and cash flows to acquire entire companies (GEICO, See's Candies, BNSF Railway, Dairy Queen, Precision Castparts) and to build massive stock positions in American Express, Coca-Cola, Apple, and Bank of America. A single share of Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock, worth $19 when Buffett took over, exceeded $600,000 by the mid-2020s -- a compounded annual gain of roughly 20 percent sustained over six decades.
Buffett's annual shareholder letters, published every February since 1965, became legendary for their clarity, wit, and intellectual honesty. Written without a ghostwriter, the letters educate readers on accounting, capital allocation, corporate governance, and human psychology. Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha -- dubbed "Woodstock for Capitalists" -- draws tens of thousands of attendees each year to hear Buffett and his late partner Charlie Munger answer unscripted questions for five or six hours straight.
Beyond investing, Buffett reshaped modern philanthropy. In June 2006, he announced he would gradually give away his entire Berkshire fortune, pledging the bulk to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He co-founded the Giving Pledge with Bill and Melinda Gates in 2010, a public commitment by billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes. By 2024, Buffett had donated more than $55 billion worth of Berkshire shares, and his total lifetime charitable commitments are expected to exceed $100 billion. He has repeatedly stated that dynastic wealth is neither good for heirs nor for society, famously saying he wants to leave his children "enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing."
Most Famous Warren Buffett Quotes
These are the most famous Warren Buffett quotes — the words of wisdom from the Oracle of Omaha that have guided investors and shaped business thinking for over six decades. From his annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders to his legendary interviews, these iconic sayings distill a lifetime of financial genius into timeless principles.
"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."
Letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, 2008 — The foundational principle of value investing in six words
"Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful."
Letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, 2004 — The contrarian wisdom that defines Buffett's market approach
"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it."
Attributed to Buffett — On the fragility of trust and the importance of integrity
"The best investment you can make is in yourself."
Forbes interview — On the unmatched returns of personal development and lifelong learning
"Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."
Attributed to Buffett — On the power of long-term thinking and patience
"Never invest in a business you cannot understand."
Attributed to Buffett — The circle of competence principle that has protected his portfolio for decades
"The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient."
Attributed to Buffett — On why patience is the single greatest edge in investing
"You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong."
Attributed to Buffett — On the asymmetric power of avoiding mistakes over chasing wins
Buffett Quotes on Investing and the Stock Market
Warren Buffett began investing at age eleven when he bought his first stock, Cities Service preferred, and has since built Berkshire Hathaway into one of the largest conglomerates in the world with a market capitalization exceeding $900 billion and wholly owned subsidiaries including GEICO, BNSF Railway, Dairy Queen, and Duracell. His investment approach, rooted in the value investing principles taught by his mentor Benjamin Graham at Columbia Business School, emphasizes buying excellent businesses at fair prices and holding them indefinitely, a strategy that has generated a compound annual return of approximately 20 percent over six decades. Buffett's annual shareholder letters, written from Berkshire Hathaway's modest headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, have become the most widely read documents in investment literature, offering lucid explanations of investment philosophy, corporate governance, and economic analysis. His famous advice to "be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful" encapsulates a contrarian approach to market timing that has consistently outperformed the broader market. Buffett's investment record, which has transformed a struggling textile company purchased in 1965 for $8 per share into a stock trading at over $600,000 per share, stands as the most compelling demonstration of value investing's power in financial history.
"Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1."
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting, 2004
"Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful."
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter to Shareholders, 1986
"The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient."
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting, 2008
"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter to Shareholders, 2008
"Our favorite holding period is forever."
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter to Shareholders, 1988
"Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing."
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting, 1993
"Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked."
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter to Shareholders, 2001
"It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price."
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter to Shareholders, 1989
"Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing."
The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville, Columbia Business School Magazine, 1984
Buffett Quotes About Money and Wealth
Buffett's relationship with money is characterized by a paradox that has fascinated biographers and business students alike: he is one of the greatest wealth creators in history yet lives with remarkable frugality in the same Omaha house he purchased in 1958 for $31,500. He eats at McDonald's, drinks five Cherry Cokes a day, and has famously never owned a smartphone for most of his career, maintaining that simple living allows him to focus his mental energy on investment decisions rather than consumption. His concept of an "inner scorecard" versus an "outer scorecard" encourages people to measure success by their own internal standards rather than by others' perceptions, a philosophy that has allowed him to make unpopular investment decisions with confidence. Buffett's approach to personal finance emphasizes avoiding debt, living below one's means, and investing consistently in productive assets, principles he has advocated for decades through his writings and public appearances. His demonstration that extraordinary wealth can coexist with personal modesty and intellectual integrity offers a powerful counternarrative to the conspicuous consumption often associated with billionaire lifestyles.
"Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving."
Interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw, 2009
"If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need."
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting, 2010
"I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted it for a minute."
Alice Schroeder, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, 2008
"I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing."
Interview with Fortune magazine, September 29, 1986
"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."
Interview with Ben Stein, The New York Times, November 26, 2006
"My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest."
Giving Pledge letter, June 2010
"Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting, 1991
Buffett Quotes on Business and Success
Buffett's approach to business evaluation centers on identifying companies with durable competitive advantages, which he calls "economic moats," managed by honest and capable executives who allocate capital rationally. His preference for businesses with strong brand recognition, pricing power, and high returns on equity has led Berkshire Hathaway to acquire and hold companies including See's Candies, purchased for $25 million in 1972 and generating over $2 billion in cumulative pre-tax profits, and Coca-Cola, in which Berkshire's initial $1.3 billion investment in 1988 has grown to be worth over $25 billion. Buffett's concept of the "circle of competence," which advises investors to focus on industries and businesses they understand deeply rather than chasing unfamiliar opportunities, has become a foundational principle of intelligent investing. His famous reluctance to invest in technology companies, based on his difficulty predicting their long-term competitive positions, was eventually overcome by his massive investment in Apple, which has become Berkshire's largest holding at over $170 billion. Buffett's business and investment philosophy demonstrates that sustained wealth creation requires patience, discipline, and the intellectual humility to stay within one's area of expertise.
"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."
Interview with Charlie Rose, PBS, 2008
"In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield."
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter to Shareholders, 2001
"I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will."
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting, 1996
"When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact."
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter to Shareholders, 1989
"You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong."
Alice Schroeder, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, 2008
"The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything."
Interview with CNBC's Becky Quick, Squawk Box, 2013
"Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken."
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting, 2004
Buffett Quotes About Life and Character
Buffett's 2006 pledge to give away over 99 percent of his wealth, primarily through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, represents the largest charitable commitment in history and has inspired dozens of other billionaires to sign the Giving Pledge he co-created with Bill and Melinda Gates in 2010. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1930, he displayed entrepreneurial instincts from childhood, running a newspaper delivery route, selling chewing gum door-to-door, and operating pinball machines in barber shops before attending the Wharton School and later Columbia Business School. His emphasis on integrity, which he has called the most important quality in an employee or business partner, extends to his corporate governance practices at Berkshire Hathaway, where he has maintained a culture of decentralized management, minimal bureaucracy, and honest communication with shareholders. Buffett's annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, attended by over 40,000 people and known as the "Woodstock of Capitalism," has become the most celebrated gathering in the financial world. His life and career demonstrate that exceptional character, disciplined thinking, and genuine concern for others can produce extraordinary financial success while earning the respect and affection of people across all walks of life.
"Honesty is a very expensive gift. Don't expect it from cheap people."
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting, 2010
"The most important investment you can make is in yourself."
Interview with Forbes, October 2014
"It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results."
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter to Shareholders, 1994
"Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don't have the first, the other two will kill you."
Lecture at the University of Florida School of Business, October 15, 1998
"You can't make a good deal with a bad person."
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting, 2008
"The best thing I did was to choose the right heroes."
Alice Schroeder, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, 2008
"The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year."
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter to Shareholders, 2005
Buffett Quotes on Patience, Learning, and Long-Term Thinking
Warren Buffett's wisdom extends across six decades of shareholder letters, annual meeting Q&A sessions, university lectures, and candid interviews. These additional quotes draw from his Berkshire Hathaway letters, the HBO documentary "Becoming Warren Buffett," Alice Schroeder's biography "The Snowball," and his appearances at Columbia, Nebraska, and Florida universities. They reveal the depth of his thinking on patience, compounding, human psychology, and the habits that separate lasting success from fleeting luck.
"No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 1985
"The trick in investing is just to sit there and watch pitch after pitch go by and wait for the one right in your sweet spot."
Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, 1999
"I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business."
Interview with CNBC, 2007
"We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 1986
"What the wise do in the beginning, fools do in the end."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 2000
"We've long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune tellers look good."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 1992
"Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 1989
"I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business."
HBO documentary, Becoming Warren Buffett, 2017
"If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians."
Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, 1998
"Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls-Royce to get advice from those who take the subway."
Attributed; used at Columbia University lecture, 1991
"An investor should act as though he had a lifetime decision card with just twenty punches on it."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 1993
"We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 2005
"When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 2008
"I would say the most important thing in business is to have a passion for what you're doing. If you have passion, you're going to work harder, and it'll show."
HBO documentary, Becoming Warren Buffett, 2017
"Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 1985
"The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect."
Lecture at the University of Florida, October 1998
"Accounting is the language of business. If you want to succeed in business, you have to understand accounting."
University of Nebraska-Lincoln lecture, 2003
"We don't have to be smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest."
Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, 2007
"What counts for most people in investing is not how much they know, but rather how realistically they define what they don't know."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 1992
"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."
Interview with Forbes, 1993
"In a world where knowledge is the currency, the best investment is developing your own abilities."
University of Nebraska-Lincoln commencement address, 2011
"There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 1994
"I don't look to jump over seven-foot bars: I look around for one-foot bars that I can step over."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 1989
"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."
Lecture at the University of Florida, October 1998
"If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy."
The Snowball by Alice Schroeder, 2008
"Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 2002
"You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out. But the tide always goes out eventually."
Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, 2009
"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."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 2013
"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."
Interview with CNBC's Becky Quick, 2009
"I just sit in my office and read all day. That's all I do."
HBO documentary, Becoming Warren Buffett, 2017
"The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth."
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, 1996
"Never give up searching for the job that you are passionate about. Try to find the job you'd have if you were independently wealthy."
Lecture at the University of Florida, October 1998
Frequently Asked Questions about Warren Buffett Quotes
What is Warren Buffett's investment philosophy in his own words?
Warren Buffett's investment philosophy centers on value investing, a discipline he learned from his mentor Benjamin Graham at Columbia Business School. His famous rule -- "Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1" -- captures his focus on capital preservation over speculation. Buffett repeatedly emphasizes buying wonderful companies at fair prices rather than fair companies at wonderful prices, and holding them indefinitely. He has described his approach as "be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful," a contrarian stance that led him to make billions during market downturns. His letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, published annually since 1965, are considered essential reading for serious investors worldwide.
What does Warren Buffett say about money and wealth?
Despite being one of the wealthiest people in history, Buffett's quotes on money emphasize that wealth is a tool, not a goal. He famously stated "the most important investment you can make is in yourself," and has consistently argued that investing in your own education and skills yields the highest returns of any asset class. He has also said "if you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need," reflecting his legendary frugality -- he still lives in the Omaha home he bought in 1958 for $31,500. In 2006, Buffett pledged to give away over 99% of his fortune to charity, proving his belief that enormous wealth carries enormous responsibility.
What are Warren Buffett's best quotes about patience?
Patience is perhaps the most consistent theme in Buffett's philosophy. His observation that "the stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient" distills decades of investing wisdom into a single sentence. Buffett has compared investing to baseball, saying "the trick in investing is just to sit there and watch pitch after pitch go by and wait for the one right in your sweet spot." He has held some of his best investments for decades -- his stake in Coca-Cola, purchased in 1988, has never been sold. His advice that "no matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time -- you can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant" humorously illustrates his conviction that compounding rewards those who wait.
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