WARREN BUFFETT

Predicting rain doesn't count. Building arks does.

I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here.

I think that both parties should declare the debt limit as a political weapon of mass destruction which can't be used. I mean, it is silly to have a country that has 237 years building up its reputation and then have people threaten to tear it down because they're not getting some other matter.

The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.

The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we'll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on.

Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.

The only way to get love is to be lovable. It's very irritating if you have a lot of money. You'd like to think you could write a check: 'I'll buy a million dollars' worth of love.' But it doesn't work that way. The more you give love away, the more you get.

When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.

Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.

Basically, when you get to my age, you'll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

I would say the most satisfying thing actually is watching my three children each pick up on their own interests and work many more hours per week than most people that have jobs at trying to intelligently give away that money in fields that they particularly care about.

Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

It's never paid to bet against America. We come through things, but its not always a smooth ride.

If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end - people like myself - should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it.

Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.

You have no ability, if you're a financial institution and you're threatened with criminal prosecution, you have no ability to negotiate.

I sent one e-mail in my life. I sent it to Jeff Raikes at Microsoft, and it ended up in court in Minneapolis, so I am one for one.

The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth.

When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.

Economic medicine that was previously meted out by the cupful has recently been dispensed by the barrel. These once unthinkable dosages will almost certainly bring on unwelcome after-effects. Their precise nature is anyone's guess, though one likely consequence is an onslaught of inflation.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.