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I know just enough about thermodynamics to understand that if it takes too much fossil-fuel energy to create ethanol, that's a very stupid way to solve an energy problem.

Charlie Munger

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Charlie Munger
Age: 100
Born: 1924
Born: January 1
Business Person
Financier
Investor
Lawyer
Omaha
Nebraska
Charlie Thomas Munger
Charles T. Munger
Charles Thomas Munger
Way
Stupid
Takes
Create
Ethanol
Understand
Thermodynamics
Energy
Fossil
Problem
Fossils
Enough
Fuel
Much
Solve

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Whenever you think something or some person is ruining your life, it's you. A victimization mentality is so debilitating.
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Creative accounting is an absolute curse to a civilization. One could argue that double-entry bookkeeping was one of history's great advances. Using accounting for fraud and folly is a disgrace. In a democracy, it often takes a scandal to trigger reform. Enron was the most obvious example of a business culture gone wrong in a long, long time.
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The SEC does way more good than harm - the last thing I would do is get rid of the SEC...if accounting were thoroughly fixed, a lot of other sins would go away. We're paying a huge price for deterioration of accounting.
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You have to know accounting. It's the language of practical business life. It was a very useful thing to deliver to civilization. I've heard it came to civilization through Venice which of course was once the great commercial power in the Mediterranean. However, double entry bookkeeping was a hell of an invention.
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We try more to profit from always remembering the obvious than from grasping the esoteric.
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Is there such thing as a cheerful pessimist? That's what I am.
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Derivative trading with mark-to-market accounting degenerates into mark-to-model. Two firms make a big derivative trade and the accountants on both sides show a large profit from the same trade.
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Your life must focus on the maximization of objectivity.
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A board member should be perfectly willing to leave at any time and willing to make the tough calls.
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Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day.
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Our experience tends to confirm a long-held notion that being prepared, on a few occasions in a lifetime, to act promptly in scale, in doing some simple and logical thing, will often dramatically improve the financial results of that lifetime.
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Forgetting your mistakes is a terrible error if you are trying to improve your cognition.
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We may well have a competitive advantage buying decent businesses at decent prices. But they won't be fabulous businesses and fabulous prices. There's too much competition and money out there, with many buyout specialists.
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To atone, I teach and try to set an example... I love spreading this stuff around. Just because it's trite doesn't mean it isn't right. In fact, I like to say, 'If it's trite, it's right.'
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If only I had the influence with my wife and children that I have in some other quarters!
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If mutual fund directors are independent, then I'm the lead character in the Bolshoi Ballet.
Charlie Munger
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Acknowledging what you don't know is the dawning of wisdom.
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We have a passion for keeping things simple.
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Just keep your head down and do your best.
Charlie Munger
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I bet Richard Fuld doesn't have an ounce of contrition. It's just megalomania. When it's like that, you need rules to prevent catastrophe. When banks are borrowing the government's credit rating, you need rules to prevent stupid things.
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