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Most of the time common stocks are subject to irrational and excessive price fluctuations in both directions as the consequence of the ingrained tendency of most people to speculate or gamble... to give way to hope, fear and greed.

Benjamin Graham

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Benjamin Graham
Age: 82 †
Born: 1894
Born: May 8
Died: 1976
Died: September 21
Economist
Financier
Investor
University Teacher
Writer
London
England
Way
Subject
Tendency
Stocks
Time
Subjects
Tendencies
Excessive
People
Common
Greed
Gamble
Hope
Investing
Directions
Fluctuations
Fear
Investment
Speculation
Fluctuation
Money
Price
Irrational
Speculate
Give
Consequence
Professors
Ingrained
Giving
Financial
Finance
Gamer

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In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run it is a weighing machine.
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Individuals who cannot master their emotions are ill-suited to profit from the investment process.
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The qualitative factors upon which most stress is laid are the nature of the business and the character of the management. These elements are exceedingly important, but they are also exceedingly difficult to deal with intelligently.
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The money cost of the reservoir plan literally fades into insignificance when it is compared with the financial burden which the great depression imposed on the nation.
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The market is always making mountains out of molehills and exaggerating ordinary vicissitudes into major setbacks.
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It should be remembered that a decline of 50% fully offsets a preceding advance of 100%.
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The thing that I have been emphasizing in my own work for the last few years has been the group approach. To try to buy groups of stocks that meet some simple criterion for being undervalued-regardless of the industry and with very little attention to the individual company.
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Though business conditions may change, corporations and securities may change, and financial institutions and regulations may change, human nature remains the same. Thus the important and difficult part of sound investment, which hinges upon the investor's own temperament and attitude, is not much affected by the passing years.
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Speculators often prosper through ignorance it is a cliché that in a roaring bull market knowledge is superfluous and experience is a handicap. But the typical experience of the speculator is one of temporary profit and ultimate loss
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The intelligent investor should recognize that market panics can create great prices for good companies and good prices for great companies.
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Every corporate security may be best viewed, in the first instance, as an ownership interest in, or a claim against, a specific business enterprise.
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Knowledge is only one ingredient on arriving at a stock's proper price. The other ingredient, fully as important as information, is sound judgment.
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Always remember that market quotations are there for convenience, either to be taken advantage of or to be ignored.
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You must never delude yourself into thinking that you're investing when you're speculating.
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Always buy your straw hats in the Winter
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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.
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High valuations entail high risks.
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