What the World's Greatest Investors Say
On discipline, patience, circles of competence, and the value of knowing exactly what you're waiting for.
The most successful investors in history have consistently returned to the same themes: know your edge, wait for the right opportunity, and don't let the noise of the market pressure you into acting before you're ready. These ideas aren't new — but they're consistently undervalued by a market that rewards activity over discipline. That's what a strike zone is — a written set of criteria that lets you wait with intention rather than watching from the sidelines with uncertainty. When your criteria are clear, patience becomes a strategy, not an excuse.
On Patience
"The trick in investing is just to sit there and watch pitch after pitch go by and wait for the one right in your sweet spot. And if people are yelling, 'Swing, you bum!,' ignore them."
Warren Buffett
"I call investing the greatest business in the world because you never have to swing. You stand at the plate, the pitcher throws you General Motors at 47! U.S. Steel at 39! And nobody calls a strike on you. There's no penalty except opportunity lost. All day you wait for the pitch you like; then when the fielders are asleep, you step up and hit it."
Warren Buffett
"The big money is not in the buying and the selling, but in the waiting."
Charlie Munger
"Our favorite holding period is forever."
Warren Buffett
On Circle of Competence
"Know what you own, and know why you own it."
Peter Lynch
"It's not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid."
Charlie Munger
"Knowing what you don't know is more useful than being brilliant."
Charlie Munger
"Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing."
Warren Buffett
On Discipline
"We try to exert a Ted Williams kind of discipline. Swinging only at balls in his 'best' cell, he knew, would allow him to bat .400; reaching for balls in his 'worst' spot would reduce him to .230. Waiting for the fat pitch would mean a trip to the Hall of Fame; swinging indiscriminately would mean a ticket to the minors."
Warren Buffett
"The individual investor should act consistently as an investor and not as a speculator."
Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor
"Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful."
Warren Buffett
"It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price."
Warren Buffett
On Price and Value
"In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine."
Benjamin Graham
"The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists."
Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor
"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."
Warren Buffett
"The person that turns over the most rocks wins the game. And that's always been my philosophy."
Peter Lynch
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