A Tribute to Charlie Munger
/Tribute to Charlie Munger
The investing world mourns the loss of a true legend as Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, passed away on Nov. 28 at the age of 99. Munger had been known as Warren Buffet’s closest business partner and right-hand man since he joined Berkshire in 1978.
“Berkshire Hathaway could not have been built to its present status without Charlie’s inspiration, wisdom and participation,” Buffett said in a statement.
Buffet had always been a value investor, looking to buy companies at cheap prices, something he learned from one of his mentors, Benjamin Graham. Buffet credits Munger, with broadening Buffet’s investing strategy to not just buy so-so companies at very cheap prices, but to look for great companies at fair prices.
Munger was also known for his comedic one-liners at Berkshire’s annual shareholder meetings. To commemorate Munger’s legacy, we’ve compiled some of his memorable quotes:
“A lot of people with high IQs are terrible investors because they’ve got terrible temperaments. And that is why we say that having a certain kind of temperament is more important than brains. You need to keep raw irrational emotion under control. You need patience and discipline and an ability to take losses and adversity without going crazy. You need an ability to not be driven crazy by extreme success.”
“I have a friend who says the first rule of fishing is to fish where the fish are. The second rule of fishing is to never forget the first rule. We’ve gotten good at fishing where the fish are.”
“Remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets—and can be lost in a heartbeat.”
“People calculate too much and think too little.”
"Invest in a business any fool can run, because someday a fool will. If it won't stand a little mismanagement, it's not much of a business. We're not looking for mismanagement, even if we can withstand it."
"You’ll do better if you have passion for something in which you have aptitude. If Warren had gone into ballet, no one would have heard of him."
"All intelligent investing is value investing — acquiring more than you are paying for. You must value the business in order to value the stock."
"We recognized early on that very smart people do very dumb things, and we wanted to know why and who, so we could avoid them."
“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Day by day, and at the end of the day-if you live long enough-like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve.”
