Christopher Davis

“If I had simply bought each stock that I ever bought for the funds in a personal account and held it, then I simply never would have sold simply because something was getting too big. Whereas in the funds, I do that all the time, and it's been a terrible mista…”

“If you started with nothing, you had to be such a risk taker. And then I think what happens is that propensity to risk falls over the generations, but often so does the corresponding ability to build wealth.”

“I would certainly argue that both Hewlett Packard and Koch, the boards had a lot of accountability for decades of bad decisions. And it was bad decisions on what is the board responsibility, which is who's in charge.”

“I would say the most dangerous thing in the world with a twelve-year-old is to try to be his friend. But, you know, the worst thing with a forty-year-old is to try to be their parent. You know, you, you've got to figure out how to transition that relationship …”

“If they have that credential, and that work ethic, and that level of IQ, and processing speed, and communication skill, and, you know, value system, and they aren't succeeding, they're just in the wrong job.”

“I've seen just as much damage done by wealthy families trying to build character as I, as I've seen the opposite.”

“I hit on this idea about when they were your kid's age of I'll split the difference with you. Like I literally will write you a check. You can choose. Like, we'll get you a seat in business class, or you get 700 dollars.”

“And so a big part of checking that weakness in me is not to get in that pool. And so, you know, I don't go to South Hampton, not because I don't think it would be lovely and not because there aren't some amazing, interesting people that I admire hugely that li…”

“What doesn't work is giving your kids a lifestyle where they will feel like a loser if they are unable to maintain that lifestyle on their own merit. I just think that, you know, if you do the Southampton, Palm Beach Aspen, like, you're creating kids that Eith…”

“Well, I like what, you know, Charlie said that, that money doesn't ruin kids, you know, parents do, and I would add genetics can too.”

“That's an area where, you know, I keep a journal of every alcoholic drink I have a week. Because I love alcohol.”

“Charlie always talked about dressing conventionally, you know, wearing, he said he's so eccentric in other ways that by wearing a suit and tie, people assume that he's more conventional than he is, and that serves him.”

“Berkshire for many, many years had a charity program where if you owned a share of Berkshire each year, you were given a dollar amount per share that you could assign to any charity of your choice... But In order to be able to do that, you had to own the share…”

“My grandfather built this fortune. I mean, it was amazing. He started borrowed a 100,000 dollars. When he died, it was eight hundred million. It was held in a trust as long as my grandmother, his wife was alive. And when she died, it was two billion. But a hun…”

“At an individual investment level, you know, risk is about the permanent Loss of capital in that investment, and really over a course of a portfolio, because you can be taking a risk of a hundred percent loss in an investment, and it can be a very rational ris…”

“The number one is if you can get them to spend less, that, that, that has just a huge benefit, right? Because it's not that they spend less, which means that they have more to save you know, more to invest for next year or the year after that. That's true. But…”

“In 2000, the market went down nine percent, if I remember right, maybe nine, nine and a half. And it wasn't like, managers like us who had stuck to sort of a discipline, you know, went down two and the market went down nine. It's like we were up nine or 10, yo…”

“My grandfather had been living overseas. He was ambassador from 68 to 75 in Switzerland. And he comes home and he's like, this looks great. Now his net worth was down 80%. You know, huge loss but he hadn't experienced it viscerally. So he just came in and he w…”

“My father was 30% cash in 1975. And so the fund dramatically lagged in one of the best market years of a decades. 75 and market went up 30% or something like that. And you know, the fund probably went up 20 because it was a third in cash.”

“It's actually one of the reasons I'm fairly optimistic that whatever replaces this shitty little, you know, five inch rectangle that we all carry around in our pocket, that is a very, very poor way to get information, this tiny little screen. And, you know, wh…”

“I don't think it will be more effective. I mean, I think that, or if it is, it's only because I still have a little lead on AI, but Eh, it ain't gonna last for long.”

“The writing is not about the product for the client. It's about what you learn by writing for yourself.”

“If I had been happy to charge 50 cents a walk that law came into place and I could charge five dollars, 10 dollars. People would pay me to come twice a day. And you know, all of a sudden, you know, I'm making, you know, a hundred bucks a week.”

“There was a rule from about the time we were 13, which was, you know, you were allowed in the house, you know, three weeks without a job, so that sort of got you through. You know, Christmas break or spring break, but the assumption was you were going to work …”

“I think of the, you know, the old expression, no man is a hero to his valet. Well, that, that's probably true with kids and grandkids too. You know, they have a very narrow way of judging people. And, you know, when Churchill said that, that shows the limits o…”