" In five years, $1,000 became more than $1,600. In ten years, it became almost $2,600. In twenty-five years, it became more than $10,800. The way that numbers exploded as they grew at a constant rate over time was how a small sum could turn into a fortune. He could picture the numbers compounding as vividly as the way a snowball grew when he rolled it across the lawn. Warren began to think about time in a different way. Compounding married the present to the future. If a dollar today was going to be worth ten some years from now, then in his mind the two were the same. "

― Alice Schroeder , The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life