This Is One Of Warren Buffett’s Most Important Sayings

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jun 14, 8:58AM EDT

Key Points

Warren Buffett Invests Long Term
He Has Bought Stocks In Companies 100 Years Old

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This Is One Of Warren Buffett’s Most Important Sayings — © Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”–Warren Buffett

Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO | KO Price Prediction) was launched in 1886. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) was a significant company before Warren Buffett took over in 1965. Kroger (NYSE: KR) was founded in 1883. American Express (NYSE: AXP) was started in 1850. All are part of Buffett’s holdings in the first quarter of 2025. He has held some of these for most of this century. That is part of his investment rules and philosophies.

Often among the best investments are companies that have been industry giants and successful since before Buffett was born in 1930. He and his staff can examine earnings, business models, and both good and bad decisions. He can look at CEOs, both present and past. He can sift through balance sheets. He has observed the strategies of his competitors. He has seen how companies navigate business cycles, both good and bad.

To be clear, Buffett likes to invest in companies that are that are relatively new and have been the winners in the new world of tech. This includes, among others, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). As he’s watched Apple tumble, he’s sold off some of his holdings.

Buffett’s comment is based on a statement from the mid-1800s, and it may be even older than that. “Blessed is he who plants trees under whose shade he will never sit.” It refers to social, ethical, and philosophical behavior but is apt nevertheless.

In speech after speech and gathering after gathering. Buffett makes it clear that people who trade in and out of stocks are fundamentally the same as day traders. They risk fast moves in stocks that may have nothing to do with the fundamentals of the companies they trade. If Buffett has ever done that, he hasn’t let on.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.