Top 20 quotes from the 2023 Berkshire Hathaway meeting

This year's Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting was filled with great advice – the last couple of years were running a bit stale, but Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger were back to their old antics of good humour and wisdom.

With a record-breaking attendance of over 50,000 people, Buffett and Munger – as well as the insurance operations’ Ajit Jain and future CEO Greg Abel – were on stage for five hours this weekend answering more than 60 audience questions.

Covering everything from AI and insurance to US-China relations and how to mentally deal with losses, here are our top 20 quotes:

On making peace with investments that go bad: “We had as much fun out of deals that didn’t work as the ones that did work. If you knew you were going to play golf and you were going to hit a hole-in-one on every hole, nobody would play golf. Part of the fun of the game is the fact that you hit them into the woods and sometimes you get them out and sometimes you don’t." [Buffett]

We’re reminded of a quote from Buffett’s February annual shareholder letter: "The weeds wither away in significance as the flowers bloom. Over time, it takes just a few winners to work wonders.”

On governments running large deficits and devaluing their currencies: “A man who jumps out of a building is ok until he hits the ground.” [Munger]

On free markets disrupting industries and moving manufacturing abroad: "Free market capitalism – with a lot of property in private hands and free trade and all that – automatically creates GDP growth and helps everybody, including me. But inherent in the process is a lot of pain in that free market capitalism.” [Munger]

On the positive and negative impacts of AI on society: ''When something can do all kinds of things, I get a little bit worried. Because I know we won't be able to un-invent it and, you know, we did invent, for very, very good reason, the atom bomb in World War II ... It was enormously important that we did so. But is it good for the next 200 years of the world that the ability to do so has been unleashed? ... [AI] will change everything in the world, except how men think and behave.” [Buffett]

"I am personally skeptical of some of the hype that has gone into artificial intelligence. I think old-fashioned intelligence works pretty well." [Munger].

On the impact of commercial property values declining and loans going bad: "The hollowing out of downtowns in the United States and elsewhere in the world is going to be quite significant and quite unpleasant … [Society will] get through it alright, but, as they say, it will often involve a different set of owners." [Munger]

On how value investors can be successful as competition rises: "Get used to making less.” [Munger]

On the perception of dwindling opportunities: “New things coming along don’t take away the opportunities. What gives you opportunities is other people doing dumb things. In the 58 years we’ve been running Berkshire, I would say there’s been a great increase in the number of people doing dumb things. And they do big dumb things. And the reason they do it, to some extent, is because they can get money from other people so much easier than when we started.” [Buffett]

On increasing tensions between the US and China: “It’s imperative that China and the United States both understand what the game is and that you can’t push too hard, but both places are going to be competitive and both can prosper.” [Buffett]

On Elon Musk’s overconfidence: “[Elon] would not have achieved what he had in life If he hadn’t tried for unreasonably extreme objectives. He likes taking on the impossible job and doing it. We’re different, Warren and I, we’re looking for the easy jobs we can identify.” [Munger]

On being comfortable with Greg Abel being the company’s future leader: "I don't have a second choice... If something happened to Greg, I would tell the directors they have a problem.” [Buffett]

On succession planning after Greg Abel: "Everybody talks about the executive bench and all that sort of thing, which is baloney … You don't have that many people that can run five of the largest net worth companies and all kinds of diverse businesses, but you don't need five people either … You need a lot of good operating managers and you need somebody at the top who allocates capital and makes sure that you've got the right operating managers.” [Buffett]

On understanding the fundamental mechanics of a company, such as how an iPhone actually works: "I'm not going to be able to learn the technical aspects of businesses. That would be nice if I knew it, but it isn't essential." [Buffett]

On stock buybacks: "[Buybacks] can be the dumbest thing you can do or they can be the smartest thing you can do." [Buffett]

On Berkshire’s $504bn shareholder equity: "No other company has a number that is that large now. That isn't because we've got the most valuable company in the United States. Other companies have used their money to repurchase shares, but basically we have more under GAAP accounting now than any other company in the US." [Buffett]

On runaway government spending: "Nobody knows how far you can go with a paper currency before it gets out of control, particularly if you're the world's reserve currency. And you don't want to try and pick out the point where it does become a problem because then it's all over." [Buffett]

"At some point printing money to buy votes will be counterproductive." [Munger]

On whether Buffett is worried about the size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet: "I don't think the Federal Reserve is the problem and I think they can't solve the fiscal problem. I do not worry about the Federal Reserve." [Buffett]

On poor communication by governments and the media after the bailout of Silicon Valley Bank: "Here we are in 2023 and we actually see the [Federal Deposit Insurance Corp] pay off at 100 cents on the dollar to everybody... and yet you still have people very worried. That just shouldn't happen." [Buffett]

On the legal profession: “I have a son-in-law who describes modern law practice at a big firm: ‘It’s like a pie eating contest where if you win you get to eat more pie.’” [Munger]

To watch the 2023 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in full, check out the morning session and afternoon session on YouTube. For video recordings of every shareholder meeting since 1994, as well as dozens of interviews, see CNBC's Warren Buffett Archive.