Quotes About Berkshire

Samuelson, however, hedged his personal bets - by putting some of his own money in Berkshire Hathaway.

don't remember when Berkshire started growing to a point at which he was in a different league," said Emilie. "I think my parents were really private. They didn't want publicity. My dad was a creature of habit so everything was exactly the same. We never had a feeling we were growing up in some rich household.

Let me put it this way: as long as the odds are in our favor and we're not risking the whole company on one throw of the dice or anything close to it, we don't mind volatility in results. What we want are the favorable odds. We figure the volatility over time will take care of itself at Berkshire.

People often say that shareholders 'own' the company. They don't, as you will find out if you turn up at Apple's spectacular new headquarters campus at Cupertino or Berkshire's small office suite in Omaha, Nebraska, to assert your 'ownership'. What shareholders own is their shares, and ownership of shares confers a variety of rights. The value of a share is the value of these rights.

I reflected as I walked that I had come to Berkshire to find peace, and so far, it had eluded me. But perhaps peace was not in a place but within one's self. In that case, I might never find it. There was little at peace inside Gabriel Lacey.

In the 1980s when I was growing up in the Berkshire town of Maidenhead I was heavily into tennis. It was the era of Borg and McEnroe. I used to spend hours hitting balls against a wall, imagining I was beating them both.

The truth is that I've got all my net worth safely in Berkshire and I will never sell a share so there is no one more concerned about what happens after my death than I am.

Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and investor of legendary repute: Most investors, both institutional and individual, will find that the best way to own common stocks is through an index fund that charges minimal fees. Those following this path are sure to beat the net results (after fees and expenses) delivered by the great majority of investment professionals.

EBITDA, as we noted earlier, is no longer Wall Street's favorite measure to watch. Now the hot metric is free cash flow. Some companies have looked at free cash flow for years. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is the bestknown example, though Buffett calls it owner earnings. As Buffett's term suggests, it's an important metric for entrepreneurial companies.

My father was the marketing director of a biscuit manufacturer in Berkshire. It meant that every Friday he brought home huge bags of broken biscuits that could not be sold.

My charitable donations go to educational efforts, such as Teach for America, Vanderbilt University, Berkshire School.

Alas, my "fiddle playing" will not get me to Carnegie Hall — or even to a high school recital. Berkshire, on your behalf and mine, will send the Treasury $3.3 billion for tax on its 2003 income, a sum equaling 2½% of the total income tax paid by all U.S. corporations in fiscal 2003.

The Great Bubble ended on March 10, 2000 (though we didn't realize that fact until some months later). On that day, the NASDAQ (recently 1,731) hit its all-time high of 5,132. That same day, Berkshire shares traded at $40,800, their lowest price since mid-1997.

Our aversion to leverage has dampened our returns over the years. But Charlie and I sleep well. Both of us believe it is insane to risk what you have and need in order to obtain what you don't need. We held this view 50 years ago when we each ran an investment partnership, funded by a few friends and relatives who trusted us. We also hold it today after a million or so "partners" have joined us at Berkshire.

What's out of sight, however, should not be out of mind: Those unrecorded retained earnings are usually building value — lots of value — for Berkshire.

If an investor's entry point into Berkshire stock is unusually high — at a price, say, approaching double book value, which Berkshire shares have occasionally reached — it may well be many years before the investor can realize a profit. In other words, a sound investment can morph into a rash speculation if it is bought at an elevated price. Berkshire is not exempt from this truth.

He is also experienced. Though I don't know Ralph's age, I do know that, like many of our managers, he is over 65. At Berkshire, we look to performance, not to the calendar. Charlie and I, at 71 and 64 respectively, now keep George Foreman's picture on our desks. You can make book that our scorn for a mandatory retirement age will grow stronger every year.

The reason we avoid the word "synergy" is because people generally claim more synergistic benefits than will come. Yes, it exists, but there are so many false promises. Berkshire is full of synergies - we don't avoid synergies, just claims of synergies.

What, then, is Berkshire's moat? The answer: Berkshire's distinctive corporate culture. Berkshire spent the last five decades acquiring a group of wholly owned subsidiaries of bewildering variety but united by a set of distinctive core values. The result is a corporate culture unlike any other. And this is Berkshire's moat.

The very first stock I bought right out of college was Berkshire Hathaway.

The rectors of Berkshire published a manifesto denying the right of Rome to tax the English Church, and urging that the Pope, like other bishops, should "live of his own".

Berkshireis in the business of making easy predictions If a deal looks too hard, the partners simply shelve it.

What matters most: passion or competence that was born in? Berkshireis full of people who have a peculiar passion for their own business. I would argue passion is more important than brain power.