Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.
The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.
It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
Never invest in a business you cannot understand.
Price is what you pay, value is what you get.
Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1.
Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
The best investment you can make is in yourself.
Invert, always invert.
You must force yourself to consider opposing arguments, especially when they challenge your best-loved ideas.
Think for yourself. The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more.
The desire to get rich fast is very dangerous.
Investing is where you find a few great companies and then sit on your ass.
A few great opportunities — recognized as such — will usually come to one who continuously searches and waits.
The stock market moves between manic depression and euphoria.
If you can't explain to a friend why you own a stock in two minutes, you probably shouldn't own it.
You can't see the future through a rearview mirror. Declines are the price of admission to the market's long-term gains.
If you can't convince yourself 'When I'm down 25 percent, I'm a buyer' and banish forever the 'When I'm down 25 percent, I'm a seller' mindset, you'll never make a decent profit in stocks.
The best stock to buy may be the one you already own.
In the short run, the market is a voting machine. In the long run, it is a weighing machine.
An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return.
Mr. Market is your servant, not your master.
The margin of safety is the central concept of investment.
The investor's chief problem — and even his worst enemy — is likely to be himself.
He who lives by the crystal ball will eat shattered glass.
Diversification is the only free lunch in investing.
Pain + Reflection = Progress.
The more you understand reality, the better you can deal with it. Ignoring reality only makes things worse.
I worry about not knowing what I don't know. That's why I study as hard as I do.
The four most expensive words in the English language are: 'This time it's different.'
The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy.
To buy when others are despondently selling and to sell when others are greedily buying requires the greatest fortitude.
The most dangerous thing in the world is the belief that there's no risk.
It's not what you buy, it's what you pay.
The most important thing is where we stand in the cycle right now.
Successful investing is not about buying good assets, but buying assets well — at the right price.
Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas.
Time is your friend; impulse is your enemy.
Don't look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack!
The winning formula for success in investing is owning the entire stock market through an index fund, and then doing nothing.
I just wait until there is money lying in the corner, and all I have to do is go over there and pick it up.
Do your homework before you invest. It matters more than money.
Buy when everyone else is selling and hold until everyone else is buying — that's not just a catchy slogan, it's the very essence of successful investing.
October: This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.
Hiding risk does not eliminate risk.
Never take a risk that will take you out of the game.
Small losses protect you from large catastrophes. Don't fear them.
It's not whether you're right or wrong, but how much money you make when you're right and how much you lose when you're wrong.
Markets are always biased in one direction or another. A perfectly balanced market is a theoretical fiction.
The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.
If the job has been correctly done when a common stock is purchased, the time to sell it is — almost never.
The market doesn't care what you think. When you're wrong, the market will tell you so.
Cut your losses quickly. Let your profits run.
Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon. I found it one of the hardest things to learn.
Buy stocks, take sleeping pills, and look at the results in a few years.
If you have money, you can speculate. If you have a lot of money, you can speculate a lot. But always only with money you can afford to lose.
Speculation means giving up a bird in hand to chase two in the bush.
Value investing is simple to understand but difficult to implement.
Worry about risk when the market is good. Think about opportunity when the market is bad.
Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.
In the long run, we are all dead.
Psychological biases appear over and over in investing. Understanding them creates opportunity.
I don't think you can make money betting on what the crowd already knows. You have to find what they haven't seen.
The whole secret to winning in the stock market is to lose the least amount possible when you're not right.
The first loss in a stock is the smallest loss.
Saving does little without compounding. Time is the most powerful force in investing.
History never repeats itself; man always does.
Compounding is the most powerful force in investing, and patience is the prerequisite for it.
Excellence is not an event — it is a habit.
In life and business, the people who are best at winning are those who focus relentlessly on it.
Diversification is a hedge against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they're doing.