Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy

Buffett used a version of this maxim in his 1986 Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter, describing "occasional outbreaks of those two super-contagious diseases, fear and greed" as the force that creates market aberrations. The phrase became widely known when he repeated it during the 2008 financial crisis — including in an October 2008 interview with Charlie Rose — as Berkshire made large investments in General Electric and Goldman Sachs while most investors were fleeing equities. It captures his lifelong philosophy of contrarian, value-based investing.