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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

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

Appearance Man Problem Yourself
When you locate a bargain, you must ask, ‘Why me, God? Why am I the only one who could find this bargain?’
CHARLIE MUNGER

God Location Myself Question
A lot of our respected financial institutions are just casinos in drag.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Financial Institution Money Respect
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
A great business at a fair price is superior to a fair business at a great price.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Business Choice Greatness Price
It’s stupid the way people extrapolate the past — and not slightly stupid, but massively stupid.
CHARLIE MUNGER

People Past Stupidity Way
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
The more hard lessons you can learn vicariously rather than through your own hard experience, the better.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Better Experience Hard Lesson 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
Whenever you think something or some person is ruining your life, it’s you. A victimization mentality is so debilitating.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Life Mental Person Ruin Thinking Yourself
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
Your life must focus on the maximization of objectivity.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Focus Life Object Yourself
We don’t like trading agony for money
CHARLIE MUNGER

Agony Money Trade
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
People always underestimate the ability of earth to increase its carrying capacity.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Ability Capacity Carry Earth People
If we’ve been a little more successful than other people, is because we always realised that the school of life was always open, and if you were not learning more you are falling behind.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Fall Learning Life Open People School Success Yourself
Go to bed smarter than when you woke up.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Bed Knowledge Learning Smart Wake Up Yourself
We try more to profit from always remembering the obvious than from grasping the esoteric.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Ego Profit Remember Try
Intelligent people make decisions based on opportunity costs.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Cost Decision Intelligence Opportunity People
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
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.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Confirmation Experience Financial Preparation Result
The safest way to get what you want is to deserve what you want.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Deserve Safety Way Worth Yourself
It’s a good habit to trumpet your failures and be quiet about your successes.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Failure Goodness Habit Quiet Success Yourself
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
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
There is bound to be a regression toward the mean.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Bound Method Regression
If you want to understand science, you have to understand math. In business, if you’re enumerate, you’re going to be a klutz. The good thing about business is that you don’t have to know any higher math.
CHARLIE MUNGER

Business Goodness Mathematics Science Understand Yourself

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.

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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.

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