Charlie Munger Quotes

If anything, I now believe even more strongly that 1) reliability is essential for progress in life and 2) while quantum mechanics is unlearnable for a vast majority, reliability can be learned to great advantage by almost anyone.

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.

If you have competence, you pretty much know its boundaries already. To ask the question [of whether you are past the boundary] is to answer it

reality evoked by the Shavian character who said, “In the last analysis, every profession is a conspiracy against the laity.

So there’s an iron rule that just as you want to start getting worldly wisdom by asking “Why, why, why?,” in communicating with other people about everything, you want to include why, why, why. Even if it’s obvious, it’s wise to stick in the why.

It's not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid.

Resist the craving for false precision, false certainties, etc.

My second prescription for misery is to learn everything you possibly can from your own experience, minimizing what you learn vicariously from the good and bad experiences of others, living and dead. This prescription is a sure-shot producer of misery and second-rate achievement.

"To (Cicero), pride in a job well done is vastly constructive. For instance, it motivates good conduct in early life because, in remembrance, you can make yourself happier when old. To which, aided by modern knowledge, I would add "and, besides, as you pat yourself on the back for behaving well, you will improve your future conduct.

I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don't know the other side's argument better than they do.

And he will also suffer from the psychological defect caught by the proverb “To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” The fifth helpful notion is that really big effects, lollapalooza effects, will often come only from large combinations of factors.

Don't be too timid, when you really have a cinch. Go at life with a little courage.

An example of a really responsible system is the system the Romans used when they built an arch. The guy who created the arch stood under it as the scaffolding was removed. It’s like packing your own parachute.

So you can get very remarkable investment results if you think more like a winning pari mutuel player. Just think of it as a heavy-odds against game full of bullshit and craziness with an occasional mispriced something or other. And you’re probably not going to be smart enough to find thousands in a lifetime. And when you get a few, you really load up. It’s just that simple.

"What are the secret of success?
-one word answer :"rational