Warren Buffett Quotes

I am not worried about the country. I'm just worried about anything that gums up the potential of the country. And right now, it's pretty gummed up.

There is no question we have an access stock.

I think it will get moving faster. I mean once you get it off the - once credit flows - now the recession is going to get worse.

I would say the biggest single cause was we had an incredible residential real estate bubble.

It's just that right now the athlete's on the floor. But we - this is a super athlete.

We've got all the ingredients for a sensational future.

I can do anything I want, basically, as long as it doesn't involve athletic ability, or something like that.

I know the country works extremely well. You know, but when it isn't clogged up.

I mean [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt didn't - you know, when he came in, he didn't print any money.

I know that Congress will do the right thing.

We've actually been pretty good on exports. I mean we are exporting 12% of our GDP now roughly.

I would say that an RFC-like thing might make sense. I probably would do it myself. But I don't think trying to combine that with what's going through now, I think what is needed now is liquidity.

If AIG had tried to unwind their derivatives books. I don't know. It would have hit every institution in the world.

I'll take the deal, whatever you want to do.

I don't know that I could draw one that's perfect. But I'd rather by approximately right than precisely wrong, and it would be precisely wrong to turn it down.

If you want a government that's going to do the things we ask our government to do, you've got to get it from somebody.

If I got any good ideas out of that or I think they're good ideas, I'll be glad to contribute them but the system will probably overdo some other things.

They [Goverment] take from the woman who comes in and takes the wastebaskets out.

I did not think I would see the day when, you know, an AIG would not be able to have its checks clear.

The patient that's on the floor with the cardiac arrest is not Wall Street. It's the American economy.

The same things happen to quite an extent around the globe. I mean, the European banks were doing what the American banks were.

We have a country where I don't know whether it's a million households a year or more, but good form.

We've got more productive capacity now than we ever have.

I've never been very fully employed either.

When we went crazy, and we did go crazy on residential real estate, it set things in motion that just - the dominoes started toppling.

The rest of the world really likes our stuff pretty well. It's just we buy so damn much of what they produce.

I think the rest of the country should be paying less, the 95 percent that [Barack] Obama talks about or maybe even a little higher than that.

I think the biggest thing we need is to unclog the credit markets, and we may need another stimulus - if we do, it's - it should go to the lower and middle-income people.

If you owe money, you can't pay them out. You just pay for everything, you do smart things, you eventually get very rich.

I mean, in terms of alternatives, some people have suggested for example that why don't we - why isn't America doing what Berkshire Hathaway is doing? Why isn't that a better deal for America?

You know, with your money and my brains, I mean, there's no telling how far we'd go.

That's the reality of what they're going to sell them to the Treasury for.

I think any time you couple the term "Wall Street" with "bailout" or something like that, you know - I don't like what's going on in Wall Street.

I don't think you can have a better secretary of the Treasury than Hank Paulson.

I don't like what's going on with the executive compensation.

We've been in a recession, by any common sense definition, because if you look at the American public, they've got 20 billion - 20 trillion, I should say, worth of residential homes.

It's a big mistake to try and mislead people. They will turn around.

The truth is that I've got all my net worth safely in Berkshire and I will never sell a share so there is no one more concerned about what happens after my death than I am.

The nature of democracy is such that when there's - there'll be revulsion, obviously, towards - that's never going to happen again.

H is for Habit, winners make a habit of doing the things losers don't want to do.

I is for Integrity, be honest with yourself and others.

S is for SCARY! Fear is driven out by action! Bad habits are overcome by good habits.

Think outside the square. Think for yourself don't just follow the herd. Think multidisciplinary! Problems by definition, cross many academic disciplines.

Z is for Zany! Master the Zany habit of thinking backwards. it will help you become a really great thinker!

X is for X-mas Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket, then all your Christmases can come at once!

To be successful, look for the job you will take if you don't need a job

Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing

Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful

I will tell you the secret to getting rich on Wall Street. You try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when others are greedy.

I could end the deficit in five minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection.