Warren Buffett, who will turn 83 this August, is widely considered one of the greatest and wisest investors of all time.  

But the world’s third richest man, who has a net worth of $53.5bn thanks to his stake in Berkshire Hathaway, is not only an influential business leader, he is also one of the most quoted people in the world of finance –probably because his pubic statements cleverly combine his insight with his knack of speaking in plain English.

Here, below, is a selection of some of my favourite quotes from the so-called ‘Oracle of Ohama’:

“Rule No. 1: never lose money; rule No. 2: don’t forget rule No. 1”

“You don’t need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ.”

“Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing.”

“I do know that when I am 60, I should be attempting to achieve different personal goals than those which had priority at age 20.”

“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.”

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

“You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.”

The business schools reward difficult complex behaviour more than simple behaviour, but simple behaviour is more effective.”

Nigel Green deVere Group

Blog written 18th April