Never have an opinion on the market

“Charlie and I never have an opinion on the market because it wouldn’t be any good and it might interfere with the opinions we have that are good.”
[Warren Buffett in Berkshire Hathaway's 1994 Annual Meeting]

The stock market is a no-called-strike game

"The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don't have to swing at everything--you can wait for your pitch. The problem when you're a money manager is that your fans keep yelling, 'Swing, you bum!'"

[Warren Buffett in Berkshire Hathaway's 1998 Annual Meeting]

If you expect to be a net saver during the next 5 years....

"If you expect to be a net saver during the next 5 years, should you hope for a higher or lower stock market during that period?"Many investors get this one wrong. Even though they are going to be net buyers of stocks for many years to come, they are elated when stock prices rise and depressed when they fall."This reaction makes no sense. Only those who will be sellers of equities in the near future should be happy at seeing stocks rise. Prospective purchasers should much prefer sinking prices."

[Warren Buffett in Berkshire Hathaway's 1997 Annual Report]

Benjamin Graham's Mr. Market allegory may seem out-of-date

"Ben's Mr. Market allegory may seem out-of-date in today's investment world, in which most professionals and academicians talk of efficient markets, dynamic hedging and betas. Their interest in such matters is understandable, since techniques shrouded in mystery clearly have value to the purveyor of investment advice. After all, what witch doctor has ever achieved fame and fortune by simply advising 'Take two aspirins'? "

[Warren Buffett in Berkshire Hathaway's 1987 Annual Report]

The most common cause of low prices

"The most common cause of low prices is pessimism - some times pervasive, some times specific to a company or industry. We want to do business in such an environment, not because we like pessimism but because we like the prices it produces. It's optimism that is the enemy of the rational buyer."

[Warren Buffett in Berkshire Hathaway's 1990 Annual Report]

Warren Buffett try to price, rather than time, purchases

"We try to price, rather than time, purchases. In our view, it is folly to forego buying shares in an outstanding business whose long-term future is predictable, because of short-term worries about an economy or a stock market that we know to be unpredictable. Why scrap an informed decision because of an uninformed guess?"

[Warren Buffett in Berkshire Hathaway's 1994 Annual Report]

Market downturn

“A market downturn, doesn't bother us. For us and our long term investors, it is an opportunity to increase our ownership of great companies with great management at good prices. Only for short term investors and market timers is a correction not an opportunity."

[Warren Buffett]

What does the market serve as

"The market is there only as a reference point to see if anybody is offering to do anything foolish. When we invest in stocks, we invest in businesses. You simply have to behave according to what is rational rather than according to what is fashionable."

[Warren Buffett in Fortune, January 4, 1988]

Fact that people will be full of emotions

"The fact that people will be full of greed, fear and folly is predictable. The sequence is not predictable."

[Warren Buffett talks to Patricia Bauer, 1986 appear in Channel magazine]

The market like the Lord

"The market, like the Lord, helps those who help themselves. But unlike the Lord, the market does not forgive those who know not what they do."

[Berkshire Hathaway's 1982 Annual Report]

Opinion about Stock Market, Interest Rates or Business Activity

"We do not have, never have had, and never will have an opinion about where the stock market, interest rates or business activity will be a year from now."

(Forbes, October 13, 1997 from 1987 quote)