Charlie Munger Quotes

Good businesses can survive a little bad management.

I've been associated with Warren ( Buffett) so long, I thought I'd be just a footnote.

In the 1930s, there was a stretch where you could borrow more against the real estate than you could sell it for. I think that's what's going on in today's private-equity world.

It's simplicity itself that its future will be way worse than its past.

Don't confuse correlation and causation. Almost all great records eventually dwindle.

In business we often find that the winning system goes almost ridiculously far in maximizing and or minimizing one or a few variables - like the discount warehouses of Costco.

The world is getting very much more competitive.

I would argue that a majority of the horrors we face would not have happened if the accounting profession developed and enforced better accounting.

Avoid working directly under somebody you don't admire and don't want to be like.

Those who keep learning, will keep rising in life

I call myself the assistant cult leader.

There's more honor in investment management than in investment banking.

I'd rather throw a viper down my shirt front than hire a compensation consultant.

If you get into the mental habit of relating what you're reading to the basic structure of the underlying ideas being demonstrated, you gradually accumulate some wisdom.

Whoever makes you smarter a little earlier in life makes you better

There are worse situations than drowning in cash and sitting, sitting, sitting. I remember when I wasn’t awash in cash — and I don’t want to go back.

How you behave in one place, will help in surprising ways later.

Why should it be easy to do something that, if done well, two or three times, will make your family rich for life?

I regard it as very unfair, but capitalism without failure is like religion without hell.

We have found in a long life that one competitor is frequently enough to ruin a business.

Assume life will be really tough, and then ask if you can handle it. If the answer is yes, you've won.

Is there such thing as a cheerful pessimist? That's what I am.

Strategic plans cause more dumb decisions than anything else in America.

What's the best way to get a good spouse? The best single way is to deserve a good spouse because a good spouse is by definition not nuts.

Once you start doing something bad, then it's easy to take the next step - and in the end, you're a moral sewer.

I'm very pleased when the smartest people come [to the U.S.] and almost never pleased when the very bottom of the mental barrel comes in.

The interesting thing is the field is so big - it's enormous. One thing a modern civilization needs is energy.

In fact I've probably never seen such a wide moat.

Intense interest in any subject is indispensable if you're really going to excel in it.

It's not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid.

The idea of excessive diversification is madness.

It's not the bad ideas that do you in, but the good ones.

One of the smartest things a person can do is dampen investment expectations, especially with Berkshire. That would be mature and responsible. I like our model and we should do nicely

Berkshire's past record has been almost ridiculous. If Berkshirehad used even half the leverage of, say, Rupert Murdoch, it would be five times its current size.

Derivative trading with mark-to-market accounting degenerates into mark-to-model. Two firms make a big derivative trade and the accountants on both sides show a large profit from the same trade.

Berkshireis not as good as it was in terms of percentage compounding [going forward], but it's still a hell of a business.

If only I had the influence with my wife and children that I have in some other quarters!

We have never had the will to enforce the immigration laws. What you see is what you'll continue to get.

In the LBO field there is a buried "covariance" with marketable equities, toward disaster in generally bad business conditions, and competition is now extremely intense.

The definition of hell in the legal system is: endless due process and no justice; (in the corporate world) it would be: endless due diligence and no horse sense.

This is a good life lesson: getting the right people into your system is the most important thing you can do.

We have a passion for keeping things simple.

Expect hogs to eat a lot more in the presence of a lot of hog wash.

It would be easier to screw up American Express than Coke or Gillette, but it's an immensely strong business.

We look for a horse with one chance in two of winning and which pays you three to one.

The only intelligence investing is value investing...to acquire more than one is paying for.

The name of the game is continuing to learn. Even if you're very well trained and have some natural aptitude, you still need to keep learning.

It's dangerous to short stocks.

Just keep your head down and do your best.

I think track records are very important. If you start early trying to have a perfect one in some simple thing like honesty, you're well on your way to success in this world.