“I’m not entitled to have an opinion unless I can state the arguments against my position better than the people who are in opposition. I think that I am qualified to speak only when I’ve reached that state.”

Your life must focus on the maximization of objectivity.

I like people admitting they were complete stupid horses’ asses. I know I’ll perform better if I rub my nose in my mistakes. This is a wonderful trick to learn.

The safest way to get what you want is to deserve what you want.

Our experience tends to confirm a long-held notion that being prepared, on a few occasions in a lifetime, to act promptly in scale, in doing some simple and logical thing, will often dramatically improve the financial results of that lifetime.

To the man with only a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

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.

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

The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more.

The more hard lessons you can learn vicariously rather than through your own hard experience, the better.

Acknowledging what you don’t know is the dawning of wisdom.

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?”

There is bound to be a regression toward the mean.

You must force yourself to consider opposing arguments. Especially when they challenge your best loved ideas.

I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don’t believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody’s that smart.

If you don’t allow for self-serving bias in the conduct of others, you are, again, a fool.

If you can buy the best companies, over time the pricing takes care of itself.