Charlie Munger was a college drop-out, served as a meteorologist in the US Army Air Corps, and went to Harvard for Law.
Then at age 31, he met Warren Buffett at a dinner, who convinced him to go into investing.
Today, Munger is Warren Buffett’s right-hand man as well as best friend in life, has an estimated net worth of $1.61 billion.
We’ve compiled a list of his most insightful, inspiring quotes about life, business, and wealth creation in general.
So step inside the mind of one of the most brilliant investors alive today.
“Assume life will be really tough, and then ask if you can handle it. If the answer is yes, you’ve won.”
Part of what you must learn is how to handle mistakes and new facts that change the odds. Life, in part, is like a poker game, wherein you have to learn to quit sometimes when holding a much loved hand.”
“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.”
“Our game is to recognize a big idea when it comes along, when one doesn’t come along very often. Opportunity comes to the prepared mind.”
“Invert, always invert: Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backward.”
“Remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets and can be lost in a heartbeat.”
“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.”
“Three rules for a career: 1. Don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy yourself; 2. Don’t work for anyone you don’t respect and admire; and 3. Work only with people you enjoy.”
“Almost all good businesses engage in pain today for gain tomorrow activities.”
“Instead of looking for success, make a list of how to fail instead. Tell me where I’m going to die, that is, so I don’t go there.”
“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.”
“The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more.”
“It is really useful to be reminded of your errors. I think Warren Buffett and I are pretty good at that. We do kind of mentally rub our own noses in our own mistakes. And that is a very good mental habit.”
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember your lies.”
“When any guy offers you a chance to earn lots of money without risk, don’t listen to the rest of his sentence. Follow this, and you’ll save yourself a lot of misery.”
“Someone will always be getting richer faster than you. This is not a tragedy.”
“Choose clients as you would friends.”
“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 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.”
“When you borrow a man’s car, always return it with a tank of gas.”
“Very-high-IQ people can be completely useless. And many of them are.”
“Don’t do cocaine. Don’t race trains. And avoid AIDS situations.”
“All intelligent investing is value investing — acquiring more than you are paying for.”
“Once you get into debt, it’s hell to get out. Don’t let credit card debt carry over. You can’t get ahead paying eighteen percent.”
“If you always tell people why, they’ll understand it better, they’ll consider it more important, and they’ll be more likely to comply.”
“I try to get rid of people who always confidently answer questions about which they don’t have any real knowledge.”
“I do not think you can trust bankers to control themselves. They are like heroin addicts.”
“Spend less than you make; always be saving something. Put it into a tax-deferred account. Over time, it will begin to amount to something. This is such a no-brainer.”
“What are the secret of success? -one word answer :”rational”.
“You don’t have to be brilliant, only a little bit wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long, long time.”
“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.”
“How to find a good spouse? -the best single way is to deserve a good spouse.”
“People calculate too much and think too little.”
“The best armor of old age is a well spent life preceding it.”
“Being smart and doing something that no one has done before are two different things.”
“There’s only one way to the top: hard work.”
“Smart people do dumb things.”
“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.”
“The big money is not in the buying and selling. But in the waiting.”
“I think that one should recognize reality even when one doesn’t like it; indeed, especially when one doesn’t like it.”
“You must value the business in order for you to value the stock.”
“Generally speaking, envy, resentment, revenge, and self-pity are disastrous modes of thought. Self-pity gets fairly close to paranoia, and paranoia is one of the very hardest things to reverse. You do not want to drift into self-pity. Self-pity will not improve the situation.”
“My habit of committing far more time to learning and thinking than to doing is no accident.”
“Obviously if you want to get good at something which is competitive, you have to think about it and practice a lot. You have to keep learning because the world keeps changing and competitors keep learning.”
“We both, Warren Buffett and I, 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.”
“I think track records are very important. If you start trying to have a perfect one in a simple thing like honesty, you’re well on your way to success in this world.”
“The iron rule of nature is: you get what you reward for. If you want ants to come, you put sugar on the floor.”
“Being an effective teacher is a high calling.”
“Move only when you have an advantage. It’s very basic. You have to understand the odds and have the discipline to bet only when the odds are in your favor.”
“A great business at a fair price is superior to a fair business at a great price.”
“Those who keep learning, will keep rising in life.”
“There is now more money to be made from law, but less time to enjoy it.”
“Always take the high road, it’s far less crowded.”
“A majority of life’s errors are caused by forgetting what one is really trying to do.”
“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.”
Resteemed by @resteembot! Good Luck!
The resteem was payed by @greetbot
Curious?
The @resteembot's introduction post
Get more from @resteembot with the #resteembotsentme initiative
Check out the great posts I already resteemed.
Awesome quotes
Hi. I am @greetbot - a bot that uses AI to look for newbies who write good content.
I found your post and decided to help you get noticed.
I will pay a resteeming service to resteem your post,
and I'll give you my stamp of automatic approval!