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QUOTES -Buffett quotes from Berkshire Meeting: Trade, Opportunities, United States

Warren Buffett presiding over the 60th Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting, Warren Buffett gave his views on everything ranging from investment opportunities to trade.

Here are some Buffett quotes:

ON TRADE

Trade can be a war act. We should trade with other countries in the United States. "We want a prosperous and peaceful world."

On U.S. EXCEPTIONALISM

"The day I was conceived was the luckiest of my life, because I was born in America."

"I'm just lucky... I've been through all sorts of things... You know, if I were born today, I'd just keep negotiating until they said I could be in the United States. "We're all very lucky."

"The United States of America has changed since my birth in 1930." We've been through many things. We've experienced great recessions and wars. We've seen the development of an Atomic Bomb that we could not have imagined (when I was born). "So I wouldn't get discouraged."

On Opportunities:

Not that long ago, we were very close to spending $10 Billion. We would spend $100 billion. The investment business has a problem in that it is not a well-organized industry. "We're running an opportunistic business."

Investing in securities vs real estate:

In the United States, the opportunity in the real estate market is much greater than in the security sector. In real estate, you are dealing with...usually...a single owner or family who owns a property. Maybe they have had it for a long while, or maybe they have borrowed too much money on it. The population trends may be against them. It's a huge decision for them. For a 94-year-old man, it isn't the most exciting thing to be involved in negotiating if it could take years.

On CURRENCIES

"Obviously, we would not want to own anything we believed was in a money that was going to hell."

"There could... There are things that happen in the United States... which make us want to have a lot more currencies. "I suppose that if we were to make a very large investment in a European country, we might have to finance a great deal of it using their currency."

UNITED STATES FINANCIAL POLICY

"The fiscal policy in the United States is what makes me afraid."

The recent movements of the stock market

This period has been... It's nothing. This isn't a dramatic bear market.

If you are scared by a market decline, and excited when the stock markets rise... People have feelings. But you need to leave them outside when investing.

How to Make Money:

You only need to be rich once. You don't...want to do anything risky. (Reporting and editing by Diane Craft, Jon Stempel, Carolina Mandl; Megan Davies, Suzanne McGee)

(source: Reuters)