The big question about how people behave is whether they've got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard.
The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.
It's never paid to bet against America. We come through things, but its not always a smooth ride.
The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves - and the better the teacher, the better the student body.
I bought a company in the mid-'90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I've made lots of dumb decisions. That's part of the game.
I am a huge bull on this country. We will not have a double-dip recession at all. I see our businesses coming back almost across the board.
Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.
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.
Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business.
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.
Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.
Predicting rain doesn't count. Building arks does.
We've used up a lot of bullets. And we talk about stimulus. But the truth is, we're running a federal deficit that's 9 percent of GDP. That is stimulative as all get out. It's more stimulative than any policy we've followed since World War II.
You do things when the opportunities come along. I've had periods in my life when I've had a bundle of ideas come along, and I've had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I'll do something. If not, I won't do a damn thing.
Our favorite holding period is forever.
In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
I think the most important factor in getting out of the recession actually is just the regenerative capacity of - of American capitalism.
In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.
There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
