Warren Buffett's wise words

Billionaire investor Warren Buffet’s searing commentary, "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich,” in the New York Times yesterday has unleashed a tidal wave of interest around the world: people were shocked to read one of the world’s richest men on earth demand the government  raise taxes for himself and his fellow billionaires. 

Buffet, along with fellow billionaire Bill Gates, has been repeating this mantra for years. But following the U.S. stock market troubles last week, he seems to have captured the zeitgeist of our times. 

Here are a few more words of wisdom from the Oracle of Omaha:

1. If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.

2. The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves-and the better the teacher, the better the student body.

3. Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.

4. No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.

5. You can’t make a good deal with a bad person.

6. 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.

7. It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.

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

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

10. Beware of geeks bearing formulas.