black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

It’s not greed that drives the world, but envy.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Drive Greedy Jealous World
There’s no way that you can live an adequate life without many mistakes. In fact, one trick in life is to get so you can handle mistakes. Failure to handle psychological denial is a common way for people to go broke.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Broke Live Mistake Myself People Psychology Trick
I’m right, and you’re smart, and sooner or later you’ll see I’m right.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Myself Right Smart Yourself
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
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 average result has to be the average result. By definition, everybody can’t beat the market. As I always say, the iron rule of life is that only 20% of the people can be in the top fifth. That’s just the way it is.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Average Definition Life Marketing Myself People Result Rule
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
This is a good life lesson: getting the right people into your system is the most important thing you can do.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Goodness Important Lesson Life People Right System Yourself
A lot of our respected financial institutions are just casinos in drag.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Financial Institution Money Respect
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.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Argument Myself Opinion Qualification Reach State Thinking
You’re looking for a mispriced gamble. That’s what investing is. And you have to know enough to know whether the gamble is mispriced. That’s value investing.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Enough Gamble Investment Price Value
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

Hard Work Investment People Wait 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
Step by step you get ahead, but rarely in fast spurts.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Fast Rare 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
Intelligent people make decisions based on opportunity costs.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Cost Decision Intelligence Opportunity People
How do you compete against a true fanatic? You can only try to build the best possible moat and continuously attempt to widen it.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Best Build Possible Rival True Yourself
It’s a good habit to trumpet your failures and be quiet about your successes.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Failure Goodness Habit Quiet Success Yourself
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.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Believe Best Master Myself People Smart
Hard work, honesty, if you keep at it, will get you almost anything.
CHARLIE MUNGER

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

Easy Family Life Rich Time Yourself
You must force yourself to consider opposing arguments. Especially when they challenge your best loved ideas.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Argument Best Challenge Force Ideas Love
All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Death Funny Myself Place
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
There has never been a master plan. Anyone who wanted to do it, we fired because it takes on a life of its own and doesn’t cover new reality. We want people taking into account new information.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Accountability Information Life Master Planning Reality
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
It’s stupid the way people extrapolate the past — and not slightly stupid, but massively stupid.
CHARLIE MUNGER

People Past Stupidity Way

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Charlie Munger Quotes