Warren Buffett

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.

I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.

Nobody buys a farm based on whether they think it’s going to rain next year. They buy it because they think it’s a good investment over 10 or 20 years.

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

Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.

You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.

Every man must decide for himself whether he shall master his world or be mastered by it.

A store’s best advertisement is the service its goods render, for upon such service rest the future, the good-will, of an organization.

Getting permanent value out of a job means purpose and fitting means to ends.

A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.

For a long time now, I have believed that industry and agriculture are natural partners and that they should begin to recognize and practice their partnership. Each of them is suffering from ailments which the other can cure. Agriculture needs a wider andsteadier market; industrial workers need more steadier jobs. Can each be made to supply what the other needs? I think so. The link between is Chemistry. In the vicinity of Dearborn we are farming twenty thousand acres for everything from sunflowers to soy beans. We pass the crops through our laboratory to learn how they may be used in the manufacture of motor cars and, thus provide an industrial market for the farmers’ products.

As far as competition is concerned, that must continue. But we must learn what competition really is. It is a striving to attain the best. To throttle it would mean to stop all progress. Certain men do not need to compete. They are pioneers.

The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.

Some people have so much respect for their superiors they have none left for themselves.

I have very good executives and great children. They’re very good.

Salesmanship, too, is an art; the perfection of its technique requires study and practice.

After the situation with Kursk submarine, I started looking at Mr. Berezovsky in a completely different way. For me, it was a turning point in our relationship. I think that he took a completely dishonorable position.

My friends are people who like building cool stuff. We always have this joke about people who want to just start companies without making something valuable. There’s a lot of that in Silicon Valley.

Nothing can be made except by makers, nothing can be managed except by managers. Money cannot make anything and money cannot manage anything.

I have a theory that the best advertisements come from personal experience. Some of the good ones I have done have really come out of the real experience of my life, and somehow this has come over as true and valid and persuasive.

Entrepreneurs are always taking feedback, especially from their customers, bankers, workers, and sales force. Without straightforward feedback, entrepreneurs cannot make sound decisions.