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. Benjamin Graham More Quotes by Benjamin Graham More Quotes From Benjamin Graham There is no reason to feel any shame in hiring someone to pick stocks or mutual funds for you. But there's one responsibility that you must never delegate. You, and no one but you, must investigate whether an adviser is trustworthy and charges reasonable fees. Benjamin Graham investing shame responsibility Good managements produce a good average market price, and bad managements produce bad market prices. Benjamin Graham good-man management average Why should the cotton growers suffer if there is shortage of wheat? Benjamin Graham cotton wheat suffering It is no difficult trick to bring a great deal of energy, study, and native ability into Wall Street and to end up with losses instead of profits. These virtues, if channeled in the wrong directions, become indistinguishable from handicaps. Benjamin Graham wall energy loss Nothing in finance is more fatuous and harmful, in our opinion, than the firmly established attitude of common stock investors regarding questions of corporate management. That attitude is summed up in the phrase: "If you don't like the management, sell your stock." ... The public owners seem to have abdicated all claim to control over the paid superintendents of their property. Benjamin Graham phrases opinion attitude I am more and more impressed with the possibilities of history's repeating itself on many different counts. You don't get very far in Wall Street with the simple, convenient conclusion that a given level of prices is not too high. Benjamin Graham wall different simple The most striking thing about Graham's discussion of how to allocate your assets between stocks and bonds is that he never mentions the word "age". Benjamin Graham investing assets age 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. Benjamin Graham light past years 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. Benjamin Graham intelligent heart thinking Price statistics show clearly that instability in raw-material prices is a prime cause of instability of other prices. Benjamin Graham raw-materials statistics causes The existence of such a war chest might go far to strengthen our prestige and frighten off any would be assailant. Benjamin Graham would-be might war Nothing important on Wall Street can be counted on to occur exactly in the same way as it happened before. Benjamin Graham investing wall important In nine companies out of ten the factor of fluctuation has been a more dominant and important consideration in the matter of investment than has the factor of long-term growth or decline Benjamin Graham growth important long 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. Benjamin Graham investing issues movement The modern world is not geared properly to the storage of goods. Benjamin Graham goods modern world The story of Joseph in Egypt and of the seven fat and the seven lean years has passed into the homely wisdom of the ages; but our economic thinking seems to have lost contact with so simple and basic approach to prudent management of a nations welfare. Benjamin Graham egypt simple thinking The stock market resembles a huge laundry in which institutions take in large blocks of each others washing ... without rhyme or reason. Benjamin Graham investing laundry block In other words, the market is not a weighing machine, on which the value of each issue is recorded by an exact and impersonal mechanism, in accordance with its specific qualities. Rather should we say that the market is a voting machine, whereon countless individuals register choices which are the product partly of reason and partly of emotion. Benjamin Graham issues voting choices Whenever the investor sold out in an upswing as soon as the top level of the previous well-recognized bull market was reached, he had a chance in the next bear market to buy back at one third (or better) below his selling price. Benjamin Graham bulls next levels It is a misfortune of the times that all of us must needs be amateur economists-including, and perhaps especially, the professionals. Benjamin Graham including economist needs
