War & Peace Quote by Warren Buffett

Market volatility, in Buffett's telling, isn’t weather to fear; it’s a sale sign most people misread as a fire alarm. The line is engineered to flip the amateur investor’s instinct. When prices swing, the crowd reaches for stories (panic, euphoria, “new eras”) to justify reflexive buying high and selling low. Buffett’s intent is to reframe those swings as opportunities created by other people’s emotional errors, not signals about your own worth or intelligence.

The subtext is colder than it sounds: other investors’ mistakes are your edge. “Profit from folly” isn’t a gentle reminder to stay calm; it’s a moral permission slip to be unfashionably patient while others melt down. Buffett is quietly arguing that the market is less a spreadsheet than a psychology lab, and the person who can detach from social contagion gets paid for it. Not because they’re clairvoyant, but because they’re not compelled to act.

Context matters. Buffett’s career spans crashes, bubbles, rate shocks, and meme-manias; he’s watched sophisticated institutions behave like crowds and watched “smart money” chase the same narratives as everyone else. The quote distills his broader philosophy: treat stocks as partial ownership of real businesses, keep liquidity and time on your side, and let Mr. Market’s mood swings quote you prices you can accept or reject. It works rhetorically because it turns discipline into something active, even predatory: you’re not merely enduring volatility; you’re using it.