Quotes from book
The Intelligent Investor

The Intelligent Investor

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, first published in 1949, is a widely acclaimed book on value investing.


Benjamin Graham photo

“The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.”

Source: The Intelligent Investor: The Classic Text on Value Investing (1949), Chapter II, The Investor and Stock-Market Fluctuations, p. 31
Context: Why could the typical investor expect any better success in trying to buy at low levels and sell at high levels than in trying to forecast what the market is going to do? Because if he does the former he acts only after the market has moved down into buying levels or up into selling levels. His role is not that of a prophet but of a businessman seizing clearly evident investment opportunities. He is not trying to be smarter than his fellow investors but simply trying to be less irrational than the mass of speculators who insist on buying after the market advances and selling after it goes down. If the market persists in behaving foolishly, all he seems to need is ordinary common sense in order to exploit its foolishness.

Benjamin Graham photo
Benjamin Graham photo

“Do not let anyone else run your business.”

Source: The Intelligent Investor (1973) (Fourth Revised Edition), Chapter 20, "Margin of Safety": The Central Concept, p. 286

Benjamin Graham photo

“Observation over many years has taught us that the chief losses to investors come from the purchase of low-quality securities at times of favorable business conditions.”

Source: The Intelligent Investor (1973) (Fourth Revised Edition), Chapter 20, "Margin of Safety": The Central Concept, p. 280

Benjamin Graham photo

“Unusually rapid growth cannot keep up forever; when a company has already registered a brilliant expansion, its very increase in size makes a repetition of its achievement more difficult.”

Source: The Intelligent Investor (1973) (Fourth Revised Edition), Chapter 7, Portfolio Policy: The Positive Side, p. 75

Benjamin Graham photo

“Wall Street has a few prudent principles; the trouble is that they are always forgotten when they are most needed.”

Source: The Intelligent Investor (1973) (Fourth Revised Edition), Chapter 16, Convertible Issues and Warrants, p. 225

Benjamin Graham photo

“Investment is most intelligent when it is most businesslike.”

Source: The Intelligent Investor (1973) (Fourth Revised Edition), Chapter 20, "Margin of Safety": The Central Concept, p. 286

Benjamin Graham photo

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

Source: The Intelligent Investor (1973) (Fourth Revised Edition), Chapter 20, "Margin of Safety": The Central Concept, p. 287

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