Warren Buffett's secrets of success

'The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.'

• 'Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.'

• 'Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.'

• 'We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.'

• 'Our favourite holding period is forever.'

• 'If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.'

• 'Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, 'Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.''

• 'Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business.'

• 'You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right.'

• 'We do not view the company itself as the ultimate owner of our business assets but instead view the company as a conduit through which our shareholders own assets.'

• 'Accounting consequences do not influence our operating or capital-allocation decisions. When acquisition costs are similar, we much prefer to purchase $2 of earnings that is not reportable by us under standard accounting principles than to purchase $1 of earnings that is reportable.'

'Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.'

• 'The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth.'

• 'Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.'

• 'I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.'

• 'I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.'

• 'I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted it for a minute.'

• 'We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.'

• 'You do things when the opportunities come along. I've had periods in my life when I've had a bundle of ideas come along, and I've had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I'll do something. If not, I won't do a damn thing.'

• 'I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.'

• 'Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.'

• 'I do not like debt and do not like to invest in companies that have too much debt, particularly long-term debt. With long-term debt, increases in interest rates can drastically affect company profits and make future cash flows less predictable.'

• 'My grandfather would sell me Wrigley's chewing gum and I would go door to door around my neighbourhood selling it. He also sold me a Coca-Cola for a quarter and I would sell it for a nickel each in the neighbourhood, so I made a small profit. I was always trying to do something like this.'

• 'A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.'