Warren Buffett

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.

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.

Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future.

Never invest in a business you can’t understand.

I measure success by how many people love me.

Can you really explain to a fish what it’s like to walk on land? One day on land is worth a thousand years of talking about it, and one day running a business has exactly the same kind of value.

It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.

One cannot expect to coast along and rise automatically to the top, no matter what friends you may have in the company. There may have been a time when, in large corporations, a person could rise simply because he had a stock interest or because he had friends in top management. That’s not true today. Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.

You always pass failure on the way to success.

I was determined to succeed in what I loved to do. I wasn’t going to let my disability stand in my way.

There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.

Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.

Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.

Success tends to go not to the person who is error-free, because he also tends to be risk-averse. Rather it goes to the person who recognizes that life is pretty much a percentage business. It isn’t making mistakes that’s critical; it’s correcting them and getting on with the principal task.

I don’t think people get to be successful without ambition.

I don’t cheat to win, I’d rather lose.

I thought I’d be a success even back in the mailroom at William Morris. It was just inconceivable to me I couldn’t win it all.

People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Whenever you see a successful person you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them.

Action is the foundational key to all success.

Success is achieved and maintained by those who try and keep trying.