“While enthusiasm may be necessary for great accomplishments elsewhere, on Wall Street it almost invariably leads to disaster”

Nothing helps a bad mood like spreading it around.

The intelligent investor is likely to need considerable will power to keep from following the crowd.

A speculator gambles that a stock will go up in price because somebody else will pay even more for it.

Always remember that market quotations are there for convenience, either to be taken advantage of or to be ignored.

Successful investment may become substantially a matter of techniques and criteria that are learnable, rather than the product of unique and incommunicable mental powers.

Before you place your financial future in the hands of an adviser, it’s imperative that you find someone who not only makes you comfortable but whose honesty is beyond reproach.

It is a misfortune of the times that all of us must needs be amateur economists-including, and perhaps especially, the professionals.

Diversification is an established tenet of conservative investment.

I am more and more impressed with the possibilities of history’s repeating itself on many different counts. You don’t get very far in Wall Street with the simple, convenient conclusion that a given level of prices is not too high.

The story of Joseph in Egypt and of the seven fat and the seven lean years has passed into the homely wisdom of the ages; but our economic thinking seems to have lost contact with so simple and basic approach to prudent management of a nations welfare.

There is something paradoxical in the fact that by establishing an export market we subject our entire domestic production to the vagaries of that market.

Traditionally the investor has been the man with patience and the courage of his convictions who would buy when the harried or disheartened speculator was selling.

Whenever the investor sold out in an upswing as soon as the top level of the previous well-recognized bull market was reached, he had a chance in the next bear market to buy back at one third (or better) below his selling price.

To achieve satisfactory investment results is easier than most people realize; to achieve superior results is harder than it looks.

The underlying principles of sound investment should not alter from decade to decade, but the application of these principles must be adapted to significant changes in the financial mechanisms and climate.

An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return.

Even defensive portfolios should be changed from time to time, especially if the securities purchased have an apparently excessive advance and can be replaced by issues much more reasonable priced.

Always buy your straw hats in the Winter

Those with the enterprise lack the money and those with the money lack the enterprise to buy stocks when they are cheap.

The beauty of periodic rebalancing is that it forces you to base your investing decisions on a simple, objective standard.

Confusing speculation with investment is always a mistake.

For 99 issues out of 100 we could say that at some price they are cheap enough to buy and at some price they would be so dear that they would be sold.

The essence of investment management is the management of risks, not the management of returns.

Nothing important on Wall Street can be counted on to occur exactly in the same way as it happened before.