255 Quotes by Benjamin Graham

A defensive investor can always prosper by looking patiently and calmly through the wreckage of a bear market.

You must never delude yourself into thinking that you're investing when you're speculating.

Speculative stock movements are carried too far in both directions, frequently in the general market and at all times in at least some of the individual issues.

Stocks can be dynamite.

To enjoy a reasonable chance for continued better than average results, the investor must follow policies which are (1) inherently sound and promising, and (2) not popular on Wall Street.

Do not let anyone else run your business

To establish the right price for a stock, the market must have adequate information, but it by no means follows that is the market has this information it will thereupon establish the right price.

The history of the past fifty years, and longer, indicates that a diversified holding of representative common stocks will prove more profitable over a stretch of years than a bond portfolio, with one important provisio that the shares must be purchased at reasonable market levels, that is, levels that are reasonable in the light of fairly well-defined standards derived from past experience.

Real investment risk is measured not by the percent that a stock may decline in price in relation to the general market in a given period, but by the danger of a loss of quality and earnings power through economic changes or deterioration in management.