Benjamin Graham
Benjamin Graham was born on 9 May 1894 in London, England, and later became a citizen of the United States. His early education took place at Boys High School, after which he pursued further studies at Columbia University, institutions that provided the academic grounding for a career that would span several interconnected fields within finance and economic life.
Graham worked as an economist, investor, financier, writer, and university teacher, occupying a broad professional range that combined practical market activity with academic and literary engagement. He used both English and Spanish across his professional life. As a university teacher he worked alongside his roles as a practitioner and author, and his written output included two books: Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor. These titles are directly associated with his name in the published record and represent the literary dimension of a career that also encompassed active participation in financial markets.
Graham died on 21 September 1976 in Aix-en-Provence, France, bringing to a close a life that had begun in London more than eight decades earlier. His authorized library catalog entry records him as "Graham, Benjamin, 1894-1976," a designation that traces the arc from his English birthplace through his American citizenship and on to his death in the south of France. The two books he produced, Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor, stand as the documented written legacy of a career conducted across the roles of economist, investor, financier, teacher, and writer.
Quotes by Benjamin Graham
Benjamin Graham's insights on:

A cynic once told G. K. Chesterton, the British novelist and essayist, “Blessed is he who expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed.” Chesterton’s rejoinder? “Blessed is he who expecteth nothing, for he shall enjoy everything.

While a trend shown in the past is a fact, a “future trend” is only an assumption.

The punches you miss are the ones that wear you out. – Boxing trainer Angelo Dundee.

Knowledge is only one ingredient on arriving at a stock’s proper price. The other ingredient, fully as important as information, is sound judgment.

Astute observers of corporate balance sheets are often the first to see business deterioration.

It requires a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune; and when you have got it, it requires ten times as much wit to keep it. – Nathan Mayer Rothschild.

No matter how careful you are, the one risk no investor can ever eliminate is the risk of being wrong. Only by insisting on what Graham called the “margin of safety” – never overpaying, no matter how exciting an investment seems to be – can you minimize your odds of error.

You will be much more in control, if you realize how much you are not in control.

By developing your discipline and courage, you can refuse to let other people’s mood swings govern your financial destiny. In the end, how your investments behave is much less important than how you behave.
