Money

The 25 Best Warren Buffett Quotes in One Infographic

Published

4 years ago

August 28, 2019

Jeff Desjardins

Warren Buffett is famous for his wit, and will likely go down in history as one of the most quotable and influential investors of all time.

With this week marking his 89th birthday, we thought it was a good time to highlight the 25 best Warren Buffett quotes accumulated through his lengthy and prestigious career.

The Warren Buffett Series

Part 5: Wisdom from the Oracle

Today’s infographic highlights the smartest and most insightful quotes from Buffett on investing, business, and life.

It’s the fifth and final part of the Warren Buffett Series, which we’ve done in partnership with finder.com, a personal finance site that helps people make better decisions – whether they want to find the right credit card or become the next big value investor.

The Warren Buffet Series: The Early Years

The 25 Best Warren Buffett Quotes in One Infographic
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After sifting through hundreds of quotes from the Oracle of Omaha, we’ve chosen the best 25 of them and sorted them into a few select categories:

Keeping it Simple

Buffett is known for putting his money in “no-brainer” businesses (i.e. Coca-Cola) that are simple to run, with long-term competitive advantages.

	Buffett Quotes on Keeping It Simple
#1	“Never invest in a business you cannot understand.”
#2	“I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.”
#3	“I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will.”
#4	“A ham sandwich could run Coca-Cola."
#5	“Beware of geeks bearing formulas.”
#6	"You don't need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ."
#7	“Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No.1”

Temperament

For Buffett, how someone responds to different situations is far more important than their actual skills or knowledge level. Investors must not care what the crowd thinks, and they must be patient, focused, and decisive to maximize their potential.

	Buffett Quotes on Temperament
#8	"The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect. You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd."
#9	“It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked.”
#10	“Our favorite holding period is forever.”
#11	“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
#12	“An investor should act as though he had a lifetime decision card with just twenty punches on it.”

Value

Buffett’s decision-making is driven by an assessment of value. Is the asset he is buying worth way more than it is currently being priced at by the fickle Mr. Market – if so, he’ll lay down his chips.

	Buffett Quotes on Value
#13	"Price is what you pay; value is what you get."
#14	"Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful."
#15	“It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price, than a fair company at a wonderful price.”

Conduct

A Midwestern gentleman, Buffett follows a simple and friendly style of business conduct, with deals often bounded by one’s promise or a simple handshake.

	Buffett Quotes on Conduct
#16	"You can't make a good deal with a bad person."
#17	"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."

Perspective

At 89 years old, Buffett knows a thing or two about business and life. As a result, he’s developed some unique perspectives.

	Buffett Quotes on Perspective
#18	“In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.”
#19	“If past history was all that is needed to play the game of money, the richest people would be librarians.”
#20	“Failing conventionally is the route to go; as a group, lemmings may have a rotten image, but no individual lemming has ever received bad press”
#21	"In my view, derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal."

Life and Success

How did he build such a successful career, and how does one man generate so much wisdom?

	Buffett Quotes on Life and Success
#22	“The most important investment you can make is in yourself.”
#23	“If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.”
#24	"I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life."
#25	"My life couldn't be happier. In fact, it'd be worse if I had six or eight houses. So, I have everything I need to have, and I don't need any more."

With $89.5 billion to his name, Warren Buffett is not only known for his self-made wealth and investing acumen, but also his wit and quotability. We hope this selection of the best Warren Buffett quotes helps you think about life and investing differently, and that the legendary investor continues to share his wisdom with the world.

Want more Buffett?

Don’t forget to check out the other parts of our Buffett infographic series:

Related Topics:warren buffett quotes featured wisdom thoughts investing

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Economy

Charted: Public Trust in the Federal Reserve

Public trust in the Federal Reserve chair has hit its lowest point in 20 years. Get the details in this infographic.

Published

1 week ago

May 23, 2023

Marcus Lu

The Briefing

Gallup conducts an annual poll to gauge the U.S. public’s trust in the Federal Reserve
After rising during the COVID-19 pandemic, public trust has fallen to a 20-year low

Charted: Public Trust in the Federal Reserve

Each year, Gallup conducts a survey of American adults on various economic topics, including the country’s central bank, the Federal Reserve.

More specifically, respondents are asked how much confidence they have in the current Fed chairman to do or recommend the right thing for the U.S. economy. We’ve visualized these results from 2001 to 2023 to see how confidence levels have changed over time.

Methodology and Results

The data used in this infographic is also listed in the table below. Percentages reflect the share of respondents that have either a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence.

Year	Fed chair	% Great deal or Fair amount
2023	Jerome Powell	36%
2022	Jerome Powell	43%
2021	Jerome Powell	55%
2020	Jerome Powell	58%
2019	Jerome Powell	50%
2018	Jerome Powell	45%
2017	Janet Yellen	45%
2016	Janet Yellen	38%
2015	Janet Yellen	42%
2014	Janet Yellen	37%
2013	Ben Bernanke	42%
2012	Ben Bernanke	39%
2011	Ben Bernanke	41%
2010	Ben Bernanke	44%
2009	Ben Bernanke	49%
2008	Ben Bernanke	47%
2007	Ben Bernanke	50%
2006	Ben Bernanke	41%
2005	Alan Greenspan	56%
2004	Alan Greenspan	61%
2003	Alan Greenspan	65%
2002	Alan Greenspan	69%
2001	Alan Greenspan	74%

Data for 2023 collected April 3-25, with this statement put to respondents: “Please tell me how much confidence you have [in the Fed chair] to recommend the right thing for the economy.”

We can see that trust in the Federal Reserve has fluctuated significantly in recent years.

For example, under Alan Greenspan, trust was initially high due to the relative stability of the economy. The burst of the dotcom bubble—which some attribute to Greenspan’s easy credit policies—resulted in a sharp decline.

On the flip side, public confidence spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was likely due to Jerome Powell’s decisive actions to provide support to the U.S. economy throughout the crisis.

Measures implemented by the Fed include bringing interest rates to near zero, quantitative easing (buying government bonds with newly-printed money), and emergency lending programs to businesses.

Confidence Now on the Decline

After peaking at 58%, those with a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the Fed chair have tumbled to 36%, the lowest number in 20 years.

This is likely due to Powell’s hard stance on fighting post-pandemic inflation, which has involved raising interest rates at an incredible speed. While these rate hikes may be necessary, they also have many adverse effects:

Negative impact on the stock market
Increases the burden for those with variable-rate debts
Makes mortgages and home buying less affordable

Higher rates have also prompted many U.S. tech companies to shrink their workforces, and have been a factor in the regional banking crisis, including the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

Where does this data come from?

Source: Gallup (2023)

Data Notes: Results are based on telephone interviews conducted April 3-25, 2023, with a random sample of –1,013—adults, ages 18+, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on this sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. See source for details.