“Investing is a business where you can look very silly for a long period of time before you are proven right.”

The untold secret of McDonald’s is that when you sell a restaurant to a franchisee, sales typically go up a lot because the franchisees do a much better job managing the store.

We invest generally in very good companies that have lost their way. And with better management, enormous value can be created.

Ultimately, investors are – are only as good as their track records.

Let me win? That doesn’t exist in my house. No one lets anyone win. Fight to the death.

You can learn investing by reading books.

Investing is one of the few things you can learn on your own.

What motivates people to succeed? Sex. People don’t like to admit it, but it’s the primal driver.

I love what I do. I don’t do it for the money. I work on behalf of investors that I like and want to do well for. I’m a competitive person.

What I love about tennis is that I’m better now than I was when I was 20.

If I believe that I am right, I will take it to the end of the earth until I am proven right.

I’m a very straightforward person. I say precisely what I think. Sometimes it rubs people the wrong way.

I want to have one of the great investment records of all time.

I have more money than I need. I don’t need to work for a living. I do this because I love what I do.

I’m not emotional about investments. Investing is something where you have to be purely rational and not let emotion affect your decision making – just the facts.

I think good private equity investors create a lot more economic value than they destroy.

Experience is making mistakes and learning from them.

They muddy the water, to make it seem deep.

Nationalizing businesses, nationalizing banks, is not a solution for the democratic party, it’s the objective.

Percentage margins don’t matter. What matters always is dollar margins: the actual dollar amount. Companies are valued not on their percentage margins, but on how many dollars they actually make, and a multiple of that.

In every enterprise is no greater evil than bad companionship.

We don’t have to be smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest.

Government is the people’s business and every man, woman and child becomes a shareholder with the first penny of tax paid.

When we point to obstacles we inhibit progress. When we offer solutions we advance.

The competition between me and Bill Gates, probably: Who can spend money more effectively that can do better philanthropy.