Buffett did state the rule in his own voice — crediting the underlying discipline to his teacher Benjamin Graham in the same breath — but the tidy numbered sentence is not traceable to anything he is documented as saying or writing. Wikiquote files this exact wording under Disputed and points instead to a checkable version Buffett spoke in Omaha, printed by Forbes on 23 September 2010: “The first rule is don’t lose, and the second rule is never forget the first rule.”
“Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1” widely credited to Warren Buffett, but Wikiquote files this numbered wording under "Disputed" and neither Wikiquote nor Quote Investigator identifies any source containing it. The documented Buffett wording is "The first rule is don't lose, and the second rule is never forget the first rule," printed by Forbes on 23 September 2010. Via Quotle.info
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Provenance
The closest thing to a source
Documented wording
“The first rule is don’t lose, and the second rule is never forget the first rule.”
Printed in
Jay-Z, Buffett and Forbes on Success and Giving Back
Published
Forbes, 23 September 2010
Wikiquote status of the popular wording
Disputed
The first rule is don’t lose, and the second rule is never forget the first rule. It isn’t so much having a lot of brilliant decisions, it’s just not having some terrible ones.
Forbes, 23 September 2010
This is Buffett’s own wording as Forbes printed it, from a conversation recorded at his office in Omaha. Note what it does not contain: no numbering, and not the phrase “never lose money.”
Read the wikitext of Wikiquote’s Warren Buffett page ↗ directly. The numbered wording sits in the Disputed section, described as “widely attributed” and “perhaps of gambling or horse racing origin,” with the Forbes variant named as the version with greater checkability.
Checked the catalogue record for Mary Buffett and David Clark’s The Tao of Warren Buffett ↗, confirming Scribner, 2006 — the collection Wikiquote names. No searchable full text is available through that record, so no page citation is claimed here.
No rights status is asserted for the numbered “Rule No. 1 / Rule No. 2” sentence, because no first publication has been established for it — a work with an unknown origin cannot honestly be called public domain. Every documented appearance of the underlying rule is modern and under copyright to its publisher: the Forbes article of 23 September 2010 to Forbes Media, and The Tao of Warren Buffett (Scribner, 2006) to its authors and publisher.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
What’s actually wrong here
This is not a fabrication pinned on a stranger. Buffett really did state the rule in his own voice — crediting the underlying discipline to Benjamin Graham — and the famous numbered sentence is a tidier restatement that nobody has traced back to him.
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The wordingWarren Buffett Disputed
Wikiquote places “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1.” in its Disputed section ↗, describing it as “widely attributed” to Buffett and “perhaps of gambling or horse racing origin.” Neither Wikiquote nor Quote Investigator identifies a speech, letter, interview or annual report of his containing it.
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The print trailMary Buffett and David Clark, The Tao of Warren Buffett Popularizer
Wikiquote notes the maxim was attributed to Buffett — “perhaps facetiously” — by his former daughter-in-law Mary Buffett in this quotation collection, published by Scribner in 2006 ↗. Wikiquote does not claim the book invented the line, only that it is a notable place the attribution appears in print.
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The specialistsQuote Investigator No verdict
Worth knowing before you trust a confident answer elsewhere: QI has traced many Buffett lines, but this rule is not among its investigations ↗. Anyone citing a precise first utterance for it is not citing QI.
Buffett actually said the thing — just not this way. In a filmed Omaha conversation printed by Forbes, he put it as “The first rule is don’t lose, and the second rule is never forget the first rule,” and immediately explained what he meant: “It isn’t so much having a lot of brilliant decisions, it’s just not having some terrible ones.” That is a working investor describing loss aversion, not a slogan.
The numbered version is what happens when a good line gets edited for the poster. Adding “Rule No. 1” and “Rule No. 2” turns a remark into a commandment, and swapping “don’t lose” for “never lose money” makes it sound absolute — which is the one thing Buffett, who has written candidly about his own losses, has never claimed.
Buffett’s point survives the rewrite. His phrasing didn’t.
Where to look for what Buffett really wrote
Buffett’s annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders ↗ are posted free by the company and cover 1977 through 2024. They are the single largest body of prose Buffett has signed, and the obvious first stop for anyone trying to source a line credited to him.
Wikiquote’s note that the maxim may be “of gambling or horse racing origin” is a suggestion, not a documented finding — no earlier claimant has been established, and quotle.info does not assert one.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
Born 30 August 1930 · American investor · chairman of Berkshire Hathaway since 1970
Warren Buffett was born in Omaha on 30 August 1930 and went to Columbia specifically to study under Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, later working at Graham’s partnership from 1954 to 1956. He has been chairman of Berkshire Hathaway since 1970, and his annual letters to shareholders — published openly since 1977 — are the largest body of writing he has actually signed his name to. Buffett is a genuinely quotable speaker, which is precisely why so many improved versions of his lines circulate under his name.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Best available source
Warren Buffett, quoted in “Jay-Z, Buffett and Forbes on Success and Giving Back,” Forbes, 23 September 2010: “The first rule is don’t lose, and the second rule is never forget the first rule.” The numbered “Rule No. 1 / Rule No. 2” wording is listed under “Disputed” at Wikiquote, s.v. “Warren Buffett,” which notes it was attributed to him by Mary Buffett and David Clark in The Tao of Warren Buffett (Scribner, 2006).
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1’?” Last verified 4 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/rule-no-1-never-lose-money-rule-no-2-never-forget-rule-no-1/