“If we don’t know what something is worth, how can we possibly determine whether the price is cheap or expensive?”
“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
“The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”
“Long-term wealth creation is about investing in great businesses with great people and compounding over the long term. So, despite wars, pandemics, explosions, recessions, and all the other things you just mentioned, over the past 30 years, we've just continued to buy great businesses, keep compounding and the returns have been excellent. Everyone just has to stay invested, not get too excited about the market gyrations, and just keep with it. That’s the secret to success in investing.”
“Success in investing isn’t about making a lot of money in a short period of time. It’s about earning reasonable returns over very long periods.”
“You know, all kinds of things were happening in the economic markets all the time. But we haven’t changed our course in 58 years. We just want to buy good businesses run by people we like and trust and at a decent price. And we’ll keep doing that.”
“The short run is by far the least important thing. It’s folly to try to predict what will happen to interest rates or how high inflation will rise. What matters is the long run. We try to buy the stocks of companies that will become more valuable at reasonable valuations, and the debt of companies that will pay their debts. It’s very simple. Isn’t that a good idea?”
“The three hallmarks of a great investment are superior returns, low risk, and long duration. The whole world concentrates on category one. But if you’re a leader of any merit at all, you should be treating these three as what? Co-priorities. How do you get low risk and long duration? Win-win.”
“All the real money is in the long term. Most people are too impatient and incompetent to understand that.”