Super Investor of Graham and Dodd

Warren Buffett: "I am really no different from any of you," he says. "I may have more money than you, but money doesn't make the difference. Sure, I can buy the most luxurious handmade suit, but I put it on and it just looks cheap. I would rather have a cheeseburger from Dairy Queen than a $100 meal ... If there is any difference between you and me it may simply be that I get up every day and have a chance to do what I love to do."

John Bogle: "Investing is all about common sense. Owning a diversified portfolio of stocks and holding it for the long term is a winner's game. Trying to beat the stock market is theoretically a zero-sum game (for every winner, there must be a loser), but after Wall Street's substantial costs of investing are deducted, it becomes a loser's game."

Warren Buffett: "Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars."

"The future is never clear," Buffett warns. "You pay a very high price in the stock market for a cheery consensus." Strategy: No trading, buy value, never sell. "I never have the faintest idea what the stock market is going to do in the next six months, or the next year or two," Buffett says. "But I think it's very easy to see what's going to happen over the long term."

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently," Buffett says. And to Congress: "I want employees to ask themselves whether they are willing to have any contemplated act appear on the front page of their local paper the next day, be read by their spouses, children, and friends ... If they follow this test, they will not fear my other message to them: Lose money for my firm and I will be understanding; lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless."

Buffett says. "Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get."

"You do things when the opportunities come along," Buffett says. "I've had periods in my life when I've had a bundle of ideas come along, and I've had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I'll do something. If not, I won't do a damn thing. ... You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong."

"It's class warfare and my class is winning, but they shouldn't be," Buffett says. "If you're in the luckiest 1% of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99%." Most don't. So it's no surprise that Buffett's actions speak louder than words: The richest man on earth is giving away all of his fortune.

Life and investing are simple for Buffett: "We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds." He lives in the same modest house, drives an old car. The computer in his office is only used to play bridge with friends around the world.