Charlie Munger, the billionaire philanthropist, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman & regarded as Warren Buffett’s closest aide, has passed away at the age of 99 on Tuesday night in California.
He was a main architect in building Berkshire Hathaway alongside Warren Buffett, and he was a mentor and a beacon of wisdom in the financial world. Long back he said: “All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there. And a related thought: Early on, write your desired obituary – and then behave accordingly.”
A true genius who changed the way investors viewed markets. But not limited to markets, he has some of the hilarious quotes to his name – “How to find a good spouse?
-the best single way is to deserve a good spouse.”
His words have inspired millions of people!
He will always be known as one of the most legendary inventors.
Charlie Munger’s List of Thoughts
- “Take a simple idea, and take it seriously.”
- “We all are learning, modifying, or destroying ideas all the time. Rapid destruction of your ideas when the time is right is one of the most valuable qualities you can acquire. You must force yourself to consider arguments on the other side.”
- “To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want. The world is not yet a crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people.”
- “Patience can be learned. Having a long attention span and the ability to concentrate on one thing for a long time is a huge advantage.”
>> Also read: Charlie Munger on Investing
- “Acquire worldly wisdom and adjust your behavior accordingly. If your new behavior gives you a little temporary unpopularity with your peer group…then to hell with them.”
- “You can learn a lot from dead people. Read of the deceased you admire and detest.”
- “Don’t bail away in a sinking boat if you can swim to one that is seaworthy.”
- “We both (Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett) insist on a lot of time being available almost every day to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. We read and think.”
- “A great company keeps working after you are not; a mediocre company won’t do that.”
- “Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day.”
>> Also read: Charlie Munger Interview: “There have been huge booms and huge bust”
- “There is no such thing as a 100% sure thing when investing. Thus, the use of leverage is dangerous.”
- “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.”
- “You have to keep learning if you want to become a great investor. When the world changes, you must change.”
- “In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time — none, zero. You’d be amazed at how much Warren reads–and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I’m a book with a couple of legs sticking out.”
>> Also read: When to Sell a Stock?
- “I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.”
- “I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don’t believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody’s that smart.”
- “People calculate too much and think too little.”
- “Remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets—and can be lost in a heartbeat.”
- “Go to bed smarter than when you woke up.”
- “Envy is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at. There’s a lot of pain and no fun. Why would you want to get on that trolley?”
>> Also read: Berkshire Hathaway: Main Takeaways from the 2023 Annual Meeting
- “The iron rule of nature is: you get what you reward for. If you want ants to come, you put sugar on the floor.”
- “In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a board subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time – none, zero. You’d be amazed how much Warren reads – and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I’m a book with a couple of legs sticking out.”
- “If you don’t get this elementary, but mildly unnatural, mathematics of elementary probability into your repertoire, then you go through a long life like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.”
- “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.”
>> Also read: Takeaways from the 2021 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting
>> Also read: AGM of Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting 2017
- “I think that, every time you see the word EBITDA, you should substitute the words “bullshit earnings.”
- “The great algorithm to remember in dealing with this tendency is simple: an idea or a fact is not worth more merely because it’s easily available to you.”
- “Man’s imperfect, limited-capacity brain easily drifts into working with what’s easily available to it. And the brain can’t use what it can’t remember or when it’s blocked from recognizing because it’s heavily influenced by one or more psychological tendencies bearing strongly on it … the deep structure of the human mind requires that the way to full scope competency of virtually any kind is to learn it all to fluency—like it or not.”
