Investment Wisdom: Timeless Quotes
A curated collection of investment philosophy from the world’s greatest investors and thinkers. These quotes explore key principles: value investing, risk management, emotional discipline, compounding, and long-term thinking.
Quotes by Category
Value Investing
- “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” — Warren Buffett
- “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.” — Warren Buffett
Market Mechanism
- “In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” — Benjamin Graham
Circle of Competence
- “Never invest in a business you cannot understand.” — Warren Buffett
- “Know what you own, and know why you own it.” — Peter Lynch
Business Ownership
- “A stock is not just a ticker symbol… it is an ownership interest in an actual business.” — Benjamin Graham
Moat & Competitive Advantage
- “The key to investing is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society… but rather determining the competitive advantage of any given company.” — Warren Buffett
- “Go for a business any idiot can run—because sooner or later, any idiot will run it.” — Peter Lynch
Focused Investing
- “Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.” — Warren Buffett
Investment Psychology
- “The investor’s chief problem - and even his worst enemy - is likely to be himself.” — Benjamin Graham
Compounding
- “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it… he who doesn’t… pays it.” — Albert Einstein (Attributed)
- “The first rule of compounding: Never interrupt it unnecessarily.” — Charlie Munger
- “The elementary mathematics of compound interest is one of the most important models there is on earth.” — Charlie Munger
- “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” — Warren Buffett
Long-Term Mindset
- “If you aren’t willing to own a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes.” — Warren Buffett
- “Our favorite holding period is forever.” — Warren Buffett
- “The biggest advantage an investor can have is a long-term orientation.” — Seth Klarman
Patience
- “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” — Warren Buffett
- “The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting.” — Charlie Munger
Long-Term Strategy
- “Time in the market beats timing the market.” — Ken Fisher
Asset Allocation
- “Stocks are what you invest in to get rich and bonds are what you invest in to stay rich.” — Ben Carlson, A Wealth of Common Sense
Discipline
- “Successful investing takes time, discipline and patience.” — Warren Buffett
Capital Preservation
- “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1.” — Warren Buffett
Risk Definition
- “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” — Warren Buffett
Investment Definition
- “An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return.” — Benjamin Graham
Margin of Safety
- “The margin of safety is the essence of value investing.” — Benjamin Graham
Calculated Risk
- “The biggest risk is not taking one.” — Mellody Hobson
Market Reality
- “If you’re not confused, you’re not paying attention.” — Tom Peters
Strategy & Adaptability
- “The best investors have a disciplined process and the flexibility to break it when necessary.” — Leon Cooperman
Emotional Preparedness
- “Unless you can watch your stock holding decline by 50% without becoming panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market.” — Warren Buffett
Trading & Discipline
- “The key to trading success is emotional discipline.” — Victor Sperandeo
Contrarianism
- “We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.” — Warren Buffett
- “It is impossible to produce superior performance unless you do something different from the majority.” — Sir John Templeton
Behavioral Finance
- “The two greatest enemies of the equity-fund investor are expenses and emotions.” — John Bogle
- “The problem with common sense is that it’s not very common. If it were, everyone would be rich.” — John Bogle
Inaction & Patience
- “Lethargy bordering on sloth remains the cornerstone of our investment style.” — Warren Buffett
Recency Bias
- “The four most dangerous words in investing are: ‘This time it’s different.‘” — Sir John Templeton
Temperament vs. IQ
- “A lot of people with high IQs are terrible investors because they’ve got terrible temperaments.” — Charlie Munger
- “If you have more than 120 or 130 I.Q. points, you can afford to give the rest away. You don’t need extraordinary intelligence to succeed as an investor.” — Warren Buffett
Independence
- “You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd.” — Warren Buffett
Simplicity & Diversification
- “Most investors would be better off in an index fund.” — Peter Lynch
Precision vs. Accuracy
- “I would rather be vaguely right than precisely wrong.” — John Maynard Keynes
Learning
- “Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading.” — Charlie Munger
- “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin
- “I don’t know anyone who has mastered the game of life by just doing it all themselves.” — Charlie Munger
Forecasting
- “He who lives by the crystal ball will eat shattered glass.” — Ray Dalio
Market Mindset
- “Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy.” — Warren Buffett
- “All past declines look like an opportunity, all future declines look like a risk.” — Morgan Housel
Opportunity & Patience
- “The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don’t have to swing at everything—you can wait for your pitch.” — Warren Buffett
Cost Management
- “The single best way to maximize personal wealth is to keep investment expenses low.” — John Bogle
Emotional Control
- “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” — Harry Truman
Herd Mentality
- “Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean (merely average performance).” — Charlie Munger