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Benjamin Graham Quotes

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Benjamin Graham, born on May 9, 1894, in London, England, was a renowned investor and securities analyst. He had a profound impact on the investment field and was hailed as the 'Father of Modern Investing'. Graham's investment philosophy emphasizes value investing, advocating for investors to focus on the fundamental aspects of companies rather than market sentiment. His book, 'The Intelligent Investor', has had a significant influence on generations of investors.

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Famous Benjamin Graham Quotes

“Instead of passing blithely over into that Promised Land, flowing almost literally with milk and honey, it may be our destiny to wander a full 40 years or more in the wilderness of doubt and divided sentiments.”

Years May Destiny Doubt Land Passing Passings Wander Wilderness Sentiments Divided Honey Milk Our Destiny Promised Land Milk And Honey

Author:Benjamin Graham

“Cartels have spread and will spread as long as the world lacks an effective mechanism by which balanced expansion may be achieved without a resulting disruption of prices.”

World May Long Spread Mechanism Balanced Expansion Disruption Cartels

Author:Benjamin Graham

“The chief obstacle to success lies in the stubborn fact that if the favorable prospects of a concern are clearly apparent they are almost always reflected already in the current price of the stock. Buying such an issue is like betting on a topheavy favorite in a horse race. The chances may be on your side, but the real odds are against you.”

Ifs May Real Facts Lying Sides Chance Race Issues Concern Horse Currents Obstacles Chiefs Buying Odds Stubborn Your Side Prospects Betting

Author:Benjamin Graham

“you may take it as an axiom that you cannot profit in Wall Street by continuously doing the obvious or the popular thing”

May Streets Wall Profit Obvious Axioms

Book:The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel

Source: The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel

“The reader can test his own psychology by asking himself whether he would consider, in retrospect, the selling at 156 in 1925 and buying back at 109 in 1931 was a satisfactory operation. Some may think that an intelligent investor should have been able to sell out much closer to the high of 381 and to buy back nearer the low of 41. If that is your own view you are probably a speculator at heart and will have trouble keeping to true investment precepts while the market rushes up and down.”

“Individual security bargains may be located by the process of security analysis practically at any time. They can be bought with good overall results at all periods except when the general market itself is clearly in a selling range for investors. They show up to best advantage during the years in which the market remains in a relatively narrow and neutral area.”

Years May Shows Individual Process Results Security Periods Advantage Areas Remains Selling Range Analysis Investors Bargains

Book:The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel

Source: The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel

“The purchase of a bargain issue presupposes that the market's current appraisal is wrong, or at least that the buyer's idea of value is more likely to be right than the market's. In this process the investor sets his judgement against that of the market. To some this may seem arrogant or foolhardy.”

May Ideas Seems Values Process Issues Currents Judgement Investors Arrogant Bargains Buyers Appraisal Foolhardy

Author:Benjamin Graham

“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.”

Source: The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel

“Successful investment may become substantially a matter of techniques and criteria that are learnable, rather than the product of unique and incommunicable mental powers.”

May Matter Successful Products Unique Investment Technique Criteria Mental Power

Book:The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel

Source: The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel

“A price decline is of no real importance to the bona fide investor unless it is either very substantial say, more than a third from cost or unless it reflects a known deterioration of consequence in the company's position. In a well-defined bear market many sound common stocks sell temporarily at extraordinary low prices. It is possible that the investor may then have a paper loss of fully 50 per cent on some of his holdings, without any convincing indication that the underlying values have been permanently affected.”

“The investor has the benefit of the stock market's daily and changing appraisal of his holdings, 'for whatever that appraisal may be worth', and, second, that the investor is able to increase or decrease his investment at the market's daily figure - 'if he chooses'. Thus the existence of a quoted market gives the investor certain options which he does not have if his security is unquoted. But it does not impose the current quotation on an investor who prefers to take his idea of value from some other source.”

Ifs Giving May Doe Ideas Able Certain Values Existence Security Figures Source Benefits Increase Investment Currents Investors Quotations Decrease Appraisal

Author:Benjamin Graham

“It requires strength of character in order to think and to act in opposite fashion from the crowd and also patience to wait for opportunities that may be spaced years apart.”

Thinking Years May Character Order Opportunity Waiting Fashion Opposites Crowds Strength Of Character

Book:Security Analysis, Sixth Edition, Part V - Analysis of The Income Account. The Earnings Factor in Common-Stock Valuation

Source: Security Analysis, Sixth Edition, Part V - Analysis of The Income Account. The Earnings Factor in Common-Stock Valuation

“we have complaints that institutional dominance of the stock market has put 'the small investor at a disadvantage because he can't compete with the trust companies' huge resources, etc. The facts are quite the opposite. It may be that the institutions are better equipped than the individual to speculate in the market.But I am convinced that an individual investor with sound principles, and soundly advised, can do distinctly better over the long pull than large institutions.”

May Long Facts Individual Sound Can Do Company Principles Huge Resources Opposites Institutions Convinced Etc Investors Complaints Disadvantages Dominance

Author:Benjamin Graham

“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.”

May Real Given Loss Quality Risk Economic Danger Periods Percent Relation Management Investment Decline Earning Deterioration Economic Change

Book:The Renaissance of value: the proceedings of a seminar on the economy, interest rates, portfolio management, and bonds vs common stocks, September 18, 1974

Source: The Renaissance of value: the proceedings of a seminar on the economy, interest rates, portfolio management, and bonds vs common stocks, September 18, 1974

“The investor should be aware that even though safety of its principal and interest may be unquestioned, a long term bond could vary widely in market price in response to changes in interest rates.”

Should May Long Term Interest Safety Response Rate Investing Long Term Investors Principal Vary Interest Rate

Author:Benjamin Graham

“Even with a margin of safety in the investor's favor, an individual security may work out badly. For the margin guarantees only that he has a better chance for profit than for loss - not that loss is impossible. But as the number of such commitments is increased the more certain does it become that the aggregate of the profits will exceed the aggregate of the losses.”