It's never paid to bet against America.
I’ve worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions.
This country is going - be living better ten years from now than it is now. It will be living better in 20 years from now than ten years from now. The ingredients that made this country, you know, the miracle of the world - I mean we had a seven for one improvement in the average American standard of living in the 20th century.
Never lie under any circumstances.
Singleness of purpose is essential for success in life.
Some people don't like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.
Physics is a good framework for thinking. ... Boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there.
There are some important differences between me and Tony Stark, like I have five kids, so I spend more time going to Disneyland than parties.
I think school is very important and I personally had a great experience at North Carolina, which helped shape me as a basketball player and a person. Every once in a while, you will have a player who can make the jump and have an immediate impact on the professional level, but most of the players who come out would absolutely benefit from going to college.
The person with big talk and big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts. I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master.
We've seen what can be accomplished when we use 50% of our human capacity. If you visualize what 100% can do, you'll join me as an unbridled optimist about America's future.
America should stand for more than just wealth.
Occasionally, a man must rise above principles.
I am 67, but I'm not too old to make a fresh start.
I know what I want to do and it makes sense to get going.
It's very important to like the people you work with. Otherwise, your job is going to be quite miserable.
I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.
If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I've had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
My family fears that the Russians will assassinate me.
Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.
When we really sit back with a smile on our face is when we run into a situation we can understand, where the facts are ascertainable and clear, and the course of action obvious.
I think that's the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.
In some corner of the world they are probably still holding regular meetings of the Flat Earth Society. We derive no comfort because important people, vocal people, or great numbers of people agree with us. Nor do we derive comfort if they don't.
With a wonderful business, you can figure out what will happen; you can't figure out when it will happen. You don't want to focus on when, you want to focus on what. If you're right about what, you don't have to worry about when
Capital and labor are both wild forces which require intelligent legislation to hold them in restriction.
The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn't like to do.
Another day, another opportunity to prove everyone who doubts you wrong.
Investors should remember that their scorecard is not computed using Olympic-diving methods: Degree-of-difficulty doesn't count. If you are right about a business whose value is largely dependent on a single key factor that is both easy to understand and enduring, the payoff is the same as if you had correctly analyzed an investment alternative characterized by many constantly shifting and complex variables.
In order to have your voice be heard in Washington, you have to make some little contribution.
Excellence isn't a one-week or one-year ideal. It's a constant.
We've got all the ingredients for a sensational future.
Giving should be entered into in just the same way as investing. Giving is investing.
Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.
I realize that I'm black, but I like to be viewed as a person, and this is everybody's wish.
I do not have a problem, I enjoy gambling, but I think people are trying to make it seem like I have a problem, because people really don't know.
The trouble with most people is that they quit before they start.
Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.
The only reason I was able to accomplish things is the great people willing to work with me. A company is a group of people organized to create a product or service, and that product or service is only as good as the people in the company - and how excited they are about creating it. I do want to recognize a ton of super-talented people. Without them, I would have accomplished very little. I just happen to be the face of the companies.
I mean there is no capital requirements to it or anything of the sort. And basically, I said there were possibly financial weapons of mass destruction, and they had them. They destroyed AIG. They certainly contributed to the destruction of Bear Sterns and Lehman. Although Lehman had other problems, too.
To win, the first thing you have to do is not lose.
If you lose money for the firm, I will be forgiving. If you lose reputation, I will be ruthless.
Knowing the edge of your competency is important. If you think you know more than you do, you will get in trouble.
Never think you need to apologize for asking someone to give to a worthy cause, any more than as though you were giving him or her an opportunity to participate in a high-grade investment. The duty of giving is as much his or hers as is the duty of asking yours.
Fools call wise men fools. A wise man never calls any man a fool.
The obligation of a society as prosperous as ours is to figure out how nobody gets left too far behind.
I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it. I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others. I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it. I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill. The dove is my emblem.
I'm the luckiest guy in the world in terms of what I do for a living. No one can tell me to do things I don't believe in or things I think are stupid.
Actively seek out and listen carefully to negative feedback.
Take the probability of loss times the amount of possible loss from the probability of gain times the amount of possible gain. That is what we're trying to do. It's imperfect, but that's what it's all about.
An investor will succeed by coupling good business judgment with an ability to insulate his thoughts and behavior from the super-contagious emotions that swirl about the marketplace.
If you don't make mistakes you can't make decisions.
What we learn from history is that people don't learn from history.
I don't want to give a lecture to this body that's out there. You know, I mean, having had the heart attack, I want to get it back functioning. And as a practical matter, I mean if you were Bear Stearns, and you were a shareholder, you know, you lost 90 to 95 percent of your money. A good many lost their jobs. They lost very cushy lives, many of them.
I've realized that most of my best ideas have followed a good night's sleep.
Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.
For me it was never about money, but solving problems for the future of humanity.
The Happiest people DO NOT necessarily have the BEST THINGS.They simply APPRECIATE the things they have.
We intend to continue our practice of working only with people whom we like and admire. This policy not only maximizes our chances for good results, it also ensures us an extraordinarily good time.
Do not take yearly results too seriously. Instead, focus on four or five-year averages.
I just feel that my competitive drive is far greater than anyone else that I've met, and I think that I thrive on that.
