A smaller loss beats a shared gain
“I would consider a year in which we declined 15% and the Average 30% to be much superior to a year when both we and the Average advanced 20%.”
Investing
Warren Buffett's 1960 letter to Buffett Partnership partners, one of the letters in Buffett Partnership Letters, 1957–1970.
The order of good and bad years
“Over a period of time there are going to be good and bad years; there is nothing to be gained by getting enthused or depressed about the sequence in which they occur.”
The partnership's bread-and-butter business
“Our bread-and-butter business is buying undervalued securities and selling when the undervaluation is corrected along with investment in special situations where the profit is dependent on corporate rather than market action.”