Warren Buffett slams dishonest bosses, defends stock buybacks, and nods to inflation and recession risks in his latest shareholder letter. Here are the 8 best quotes.

• Warren Buffett published his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders on Saturday.
• The 92-year-old investor defended stock buybacks, and slammed executives who manipulate earnings.
• Buffett touched on inflation and recession as threats, and credited See's Candies for his long life.

Warren Buffett published his iconic annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders on Saturday.

The legendary investor dismissed critics of stock buybacks, blasted company bosses who manipulate earnings to beat Wall Street's forecasts, and nodded to the threats of inflation and recession.

Berkshire's boss also spotlighted a few of his career-making bets, and praised his shareholders' philanthropy. Moreover, he joked that he and his business partner, Charlie Munger, have lived so long by munching See's Candies.

Here are Buffett's 8 best quotes from his 2022 letter:

1. "It's crucial to understand that stocks often trade at truly foolish prices, both high and low. 'Efficient' markets exist only in textbooks. In truth, marketable stocks and bonds are baffling, their behavior usually understandable only in retrospect."

2. "The lesson for investors: The weeds wither away in significance as the flowers bloom. Over time, it takes just a few winners to work wonders. And, yes, it helps to start early and live into your 90s as well." (Buffett was emphasizing that a few key bets like Coca-Cola and American Express have made an outsized contribution to Berkshire's success.)

3. "When you are told that all repurchases are harmful to shareholders or to the country, or particularly beneficial to CEOs, you are listening to either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongued demagogue (characters that are not mutually exclusive)."

4. "That activity is disgusting. It requires no talent to manipulate numbers: Only a deep desire to deceive is required. 'Bold imaginative accounting,' as a CEO once described his deception to me, has become one of the shames of capitalism." (Buffett was castigating corporate bosses who massage financials to beat analysts' estimates.)

5. "Thus began our journey to 2023, a bumpy road involving a combination of continuous savings by our owners (that is, by their retaining earnings), the power of compounding, our avoidance of major mistakes and — most important of all — the American Tailwind. America would have done fine without Berkshire. The reverse is not true."

6. "Our job is to manage Berkshire's operations and finances in a manner that will achieve an acceptable result over time and that will preserve the company's unmatched staying power when financial panics or severe worldwide recessions occur. Berkshire also offers some modest protection from runaway inflation, but this attribute is far from perfect. Huge and entrenched fiscal deficits have consequences."

7. "The disposition of money unmasks humans. Charlie and I watch with pleasure the vast flow of Berkshire-generated funds to public needs and, alongside, the infrequency with which our shareholders opt for look-at-me assets and dynasty-building."

8. "In our P.T. Barnum pitch, we promised you longevity. After all, what else but candy from See's could account for Charlie and me making it to 99 and 92?" (Buffett was referring to his efforts to drum up candy sales at Berkshire's annual meeting last year.)