black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

It’s waiting that helps you as an investor, and a lot of people just can’t stand to wait. If you didn’t get the deferred-gratification gene, you’ve got to work very hard to overcome that.

Charlie Munger

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.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Money Myself Situation Worst
The iron rule of nature is: you get what you reward for. If you want ants to come, you put sugar on the floor.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Attraction Nature Reward Rule Yourself
It’s not greed that drives the world, but envy.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Drive Greedy Jealous World
A lot of success in life and business comes from knowing what you want to avoid: early death, a bad marriage, etc.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Avoid Bad Business Death Early Marriage Success
Great investing requires a lot of delayed gratification.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Delay Gratitude Greatness Investment
All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Death Funny Myself Place
It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Advantage Consistent Intelligence People Remark Stupidity Try
I don’t spend much time regretting the past, once I’ve taken my lesson from it. I don’t dwell on it.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Lesson Myself Past Regret Time
A foreign correspondent, after talking to me for a while, once said: “You don’t seem smart enough to be so good at what you’re doing. Do you have an explanation?”
CHARLIE MUNGER

Enough Explanation Goodness Smart Talk Yourself
Bull markets go to people’s heads. If you’re a duck on a pond, and it’s rising due to a downpour, you start going up in the world. But you think it’s you, not the pond.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Head Marketing People Rise Start Thinking World Yourself
It takes character to sit there with all that cash and do nothing. I didn’t get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Average Cash Character Money Myself Opportunity
You don’t have to have perfect wisdom to get very rich – just a bit better than average over a long period of time.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Average Better Perfection Rich Wisdom Yourself
We have found in a long life that one competitor is frequently enough to ruin a business.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Business Competition Enough Life Myself Ruin
Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Power Thinking Yourself
Move only when you have an advantage. It’s very basic. You have to understand the odds and have the discipline to bet only when the odds are in your favor.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Advantage Basic Discipline Move Yourself
The wise ones bet heavily when the world offers them that opportunity. They bet big when they have the odds. And the rest of the time, they don’t. It’s just that simple.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Big heavy Offering Oneself Opportunity Simplicity Time Wisdom World
To me, it’s obvious that the winner has to bet very selectively. It’s been obvious to me since very early in life. I don’t know why it’s not obvious to very many other people.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Early Investment Life Myself People Win
The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Best Compassionate Empathy Help Human Kindness Learning
Hard work, honesty, if you keep at it, will get you almost anything.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Hard Work Honesty Yourself
The more hard lessons you can learn vicariously rather than through your own hard experience, the better.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Better Experience Hard Lesson Yourself
I think that, every time you saw the word EBITDA, you should substitute the word “bullshit” earnings.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Myself Substitution Thinking Time
A lot of our respected financial institutions are just casinos in drag.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Financial Institution Money Respect
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.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Basic Habit Mental Reading Structure Wisdom
It’s been my experience in life if you just keep thinking and reading, you don’t have to work.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Experience Life Reading Thinking Yourself
We try more to profit from always remembering the obvious than from grasping the esoteric.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Ego Profit Remember Try
Someone will always be getting richer faster than you. This is not a tragedy.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Fast Rich Tragedy Yourself
The way to win is to work, work, work, work and hope to have a few insights And you’re probably not going to be smart enough to find thousands in a lifetime. And when you get a few, you really load up. It’s just that simple.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Hope Life Simplicity Time Win Work Yourself

It’s waiting that helps you as an investor, and a lot of people just can’t stand to wait. If you didn’t get the deferred-gratification gene, you’ve got to work very hard to overcome that.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

It’s waiting that helps you as an investor, and a lot of people just can’t stand to wait. If you didn’t get the deferred-gratification gene, you’ve got to work very hard to overcome that.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Charlie Munger Quotes