The gratification of wealth is not found in mere possession or in lavish expenditure, but in its wise application. Miguel de Cervantes

• investing
• wealth

Investing is putting out money to be sure of getting more money back later at an appropriate rate. Warren Buffett

• investing

Time is the friend of the wonderful business. It's the enemy of the lousy business. If you're in a lousy business for a long time, you're going to get a lousy result, even if you buy it cheap. If you're in a wonderful business for a long time, even if you pay a little too much going in, you're going to get a wonderful result if you stay in a long time. Warren Buffett

• investing
• time

This is the source.

In the long run, investing is not about markets at all. Investing is about enjoying the returns earned by businesses. John Bogle

• investing
• business

If you are shopping for common stocks, choose them the way you would buy groceries, not the way you would buy perfume. Benjamin Graham

• investing

History does not tell you the probability of future financial things happening. Warren Buffett

• investing
• history

This is the source.

I don't want to buy any stock where if they close the New York Stock Exchange tomorrow for five years I won't be happy owning it. I buy a farm and I don't get a quote on it for five years and I'm happy if the farm does ok. I buy an apartment house, don't get a quote on it for five years - I'm happy if the apartment house produces the returns that I expect. But people buy a stock and they look at the price the next morning and they decide if they're doing well or not doing well. It's crazy because they're buying a piece of a business. Warren Buffett

• investing

This is the source.

The value of a business is the cash it's going to produce in the future. Warren Buffett

• investing

This is the source.

When a management team with a reputation for brilliance joins a business with poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact. Warren Buffett

• investing
• business
• management

I am a better investor because I am a businessman and a better businessman because I am an investor. Warren Buffett

• investing
• business

There are substantial rewards for adopting a regular routine of investing and following it no matter what, and additional rewards for buying more shares when most investors are scared into selling. Peter Lynch

• investing

The key to making money in stocks is not to get scared out of them. Peter Lynch

• investing

If you're prepared to invest in a company, then you ought to be able to explain why in simple language that a fifth grader could understand, and quickly enough so the fifth grader won't get bored. Peter Lynch

• investing

In stocks as in romance, ease of divorce is not a sound basis for commitment. Peter Lynch

• investing

There's no shame in losing money on a stock. Everybody does it. What is shameful is to hold on to a stock, or, worse, to buy more of it, when the fundamentals are deteriorating. Peter Lynch

• investing

Stock picking can't be reduced to a simple formula or a recipe that guarantees success if strictly adhered to. Peter Lynch

• investing

A person infatuated with measurement, who has his head stuck in the sand of the balance sheets, is not likely to succeed. Peter Lynch

• investing

This is the context.

Investing is fun, exciting, and dangerous if you don't do any work. Peter Lynch

• investing

Your investor's edge is not something you get from Wall Street experts. It's something you already have. You can outperform the experts if you use your edge by investing in companies or industries you already understand. Peter Lynch

• investing

Behind every stock is a company. Find out what it's doing. Peter Lynch

• investing

Often, there is no correlation between the success of a company's operations and the success of its stock over a few months or even a few years. In the long term, there is a 100 percent correlation between the success of the company and the success of its stock. This disparity is the key to making money; it pays to be patient, and to own successful companies. Peter Lynch

• investing

You have to know what you own, and why you own it. "This baby is a cinch to go up!" doesn't count. Peter Lynch

• investing

This is the context.

Owning stocks is like having children - don't get involved with more than you can handle. Peter Lynch

• investing

If you can't find any companies that you think are attractive, put your money in the bank until you discover some. Peter Lynch

• investing

A stock market decline is as routine as a January blizzard in Colorado. If you're prepared, it can't hurt you. A decline is a great opportunity to pick up the bargains left behind by investors who are fleeing the storm in panic. Peter Lynch

• investing

Everyone has the brainpower to make money in stocks. Not everyone has the stomach. If you are susceptible to selling everything in a panic, you ought to avoid stocks and stock mutual funds altogether. Peter Lynch

• investing

There is always something to worry about. Avoid weekend thinking and ignore the latest dire predictions of the newscasters. Sell a stock because the company's fundamentals deteriorate, not because the sky is falling. Peter Lynch

• investing

If you don't study any companies, you have the same success buying stocks as you do in a poker game if you bet without looking at your cards. Peter Lynch

• investing

Time is on your side when you own shares of superior companies. Peter Lynch

• investing

In the long run, a portfolio of well chosen stocks and/or equity mutual funds will always outperform a portfolio of bonds or a money-market account. In the long run, a portfolio of poorly chosen stocks won't outperform the money left under the mattress. Peter Lynch

• investing

You try to be greedy when others are fearful and you try to be very fearful when others are greedy. Warren Buffett

• investing

The future is never clear; you pay a very high price in the stock market for a cheery consensus. Uncertainty actually is the friend of the buyer of long-term values. Warren Buffett

• investing

Rule number one: never lose money. Rule number two: never forget rule number one. Warren Buffett

• investing

The very term "value investing" is redundant. What is investing if it is not the act of seeking value at least sufficient to justify the amount paid? Consciously paying more for a stock than its calculated value - in the hope that it can soon be sold for a still-higher price - should be labeled speculation (which is neither illegal, immoral nor -- in our view -- financially fattening). Warren Buffett

• investing

All intelligent investing is value investing - acquiring more than you are paying for. You must value the business in order to value the stock. Charlie Munger

• investing

We select our marketable equity securities in much the way we would evaluate a business for acquisition in its entirety. We want businesses to be one (a) that we can understand; (b) with favorable long-term prospects; (c) operated by honest and competent people; and (d) available at a very attractive price. Warren Buffett

• investing

Never invest in any idea you can't illustrate with a crayon. Peter Lynch

• investing

Everybody's got a different circle of competence. The important thing is not how big the circle is. The important thing is staying inside the circle. Warren Buffett

• investing

This is the context.

It's your responsibility if you're buying it. And there's got to be a reason. And if you can't state the reason, you shouldn't buy it. Warren Buffett

• investing

What you really want to do in investments is figure out what's important and knowable. If it's unimportant or unknowable you forget about it. Warren Buffett

• investing

The disadvantage of being in any kind of a market type environment - and Wall Street would be the extreme - is that you get over stimulated. You think you have to do something every day. Warren Buffett

• investing

What you're looking for is some way to get one good idea a year, and then ride it to its full potential. And that's very hard to do in an environment where people are shouting prices back and forth every five minutes. Warren Buffett

• investing

What we really want to do is buy businesses that we would be happy to own forever. Warren Buffett

• investing

We never buy something with a price target in mind. Warren Buffett

• investing

The way to look at a business is, "Is this going to keep producing more, and more, and more money over time?" And if the answer to that is yes, you don't need to ask any more questions. Warren Buffett

• investing

There are two times in a man's life when he shouldn't speculate: when he can afford to and when he can't. Mark Twain

• investing

Individuals who cannot master their emotions are ill-suited to profit from the investment process. Benjamin Graham

• investing

Book value is an accounting concept, recording the accumulated financial input from both contributed capital and retained earnings. Intrinsic business value is an economic concept, estimating future cash output discounted to present value. Book value tells you what has been put in; intrinsic business value estimates what can be taken out. Warren Buffett

• investing

To invest successfully over a lifetime does not require a stratospheric IQ, unusual business insights, or inside information. What's needed is a sound intellectual framework for making decisions and the ability to keep emotions from corroding that framework. Warren Buffett

• investing

The sillier the market's behavior, the greater the opportunity for the business-like investor. Warren Buffett

• investing

The underlying principles of sound investment should not alter from decade to decade, but the application of these principles must be adapted to significant changes in the financial mechanisms and climate. Benjamin Graham

• investing

This is the source.

Obvious prospects for physical growth in a business do not translate into obvious profits for investors. Benjamin Graham

• investing

This is the source.

The investor's chief problem - and even his worst enemy - is likely to be himself. Benjamin Graham

• investing

This is the source.

Finance has a fascination for many bright young people with limited means. They would like to be both intelligent and enterprising in the placement of their savings, even though investment income is much less important to them than their salaries. This attitude is all to the good. There is a great advantage for the young capitalist to begin his financial education and experience early. If he is going to operate as an aggressive investor he is certain to make some mistakes and to take some losses. Youth can stand these disappointments and profit by them. We urge the beginner in security buying not to waste his efforts and his money in trying to beat the market. Let him study security values and initially test out his judgment on price versus value with the smallest possible sums. Benjamin Graham

• investing

This is the source.

Most businesses change in character and quality over the years, sometimes for the better, perhaps more often for the worse. The investor need not watch his companies' performance like a hawk; but he should give it a good, hard look from time to time. Benjamin Graham

• investing

This is the source.

Basically, price fluctuations have only one significant meaning for the true investor. They provide him with an opportunity to buy wisely when prices fall sharply and to sell wisely when they advance a great deal. At other times he will do better if he forgets about the stock market and pays attention to his dividend returns and to the operating results of his companies. Benjamin Graham

• investing

This is the source.

The most realistic distinction between the investor and the speculator is found in their attitude toward stock-market movements. The speculator's primary interest lies in anticipating and profiting from market fluctuations. The investor's primary interest lies in acquiring and holding suitable securities at suitable prices. Market movements are important to him in a practical sense, because they alternately create low price levels at which he would be wise to buy and high price levels at which he certainly should refrain from buying and probably would be wise to sell. Benjamin Graham

• investing

This is the source.

It is far from certain that the typical investor should regularly hold off buying until low market levels appear, because this may involve a long wait, very likely the loss of income, and the possible missing of investment opportunities. On the whole it may be better for the investor to do his stock buying whenever he has money to put in stocks, except when the general market level is much higher than can be justified by well-established standards of value. If he wants to be shrewd he can look for the ever-present bargain opportunities in individual securities. Benjamin Graham

• investing

This is the source.

The risk of paying too high a price for good-quality stocks - while a real one - is not the chief hazard confronting the average buyer of securities. 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. The purchasers view the current good earnings as equivalent to "earning power" and assume that prosperity is synonymous with safety. Benjamin Graham

• investing

This is the source.

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. Benjamin Graham

• investing

This is the source.

Investment is most intelligent when it is most businesslike. It is amazing to see how many capable businessmen try to operate on Wall Street with complete disregard of all the sound principles through which they have gained success in their own undertakings. Yet every corporate security may best be viewed, in the first instance, as an ownership interest in, or a claim against, a specific business enterprise. And if a person sets out to make profits from security purchases and sales, he is embarking on a business venture of his own, which must be run in accordance with accepted business principles if it is to have a chance of success. Benjamin Graham

• investing

This is the source.

Do not try to make "business profits" out of securities - that is, returns in excess of normal interest and dividend income - unless you know as much about security values as you would need to know about the value of merchandise that you proposed to manufacture or deal in. Benjamin Graham

• investing

This is the source.

Do not let anyone else run your business, unless (1) you can supervise his performance with adequate care and comprehension or (2) you have unusually strong reasons for placing implicit confidence in his integrity and ability. For the investor this rule should determine the conditions under which he will permit someone else to decide what is done with his money. Benjamin Graham

• investing
• business

This is the source.

Operations for profit should be based not on optimism but on arithmetic. Benjamin Graham

• investing
• business

This is the source.

In the world of securities, courage becomes the supreme virtue after adequate knowledge and a tested judgment are at hand. Benjamin Graham

• investing

This is the source.

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

• investing

This is the source.

The market, like the Lord, helps those who help themselves. But unlike the Lord, the market does not forgive those who know not what they do. Warren Buffett

• investing

Beware the investment activity that produces applause; the great moves are usually greeted by yawns. Warren Buffett

• investing

What you're doing when you invest is deferring consumption and laying money out now to get more money back at a later time. And there are really only two questions. One is how much you're going to get back, and the other is when. Warren Buffett

• investing

Wall Street is the only place people ride to in a Rolls-Royce to get advice from people who ride the subway. Warren Buffett

• investing
• advice

Over the years, a number of very smart people have learned the hard way that a long string of impressive numbers multiplied by a single zero always equals zero. Warren Buffett

• investing
• risk

Investing in a market where people believe in efficiency is like playing bridge with someone who has been told it doesn't do any good to look at the cards. Warren Buffett

• investing

In the short run, the market is a voting machine; in the long run, it's a weighing machine. Warren Buffett

• investing

The dumbest reason in the world to buy a stock is because it's going up. Warren Buffett

• investing

Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. Warren Buffett

• investing

Great investment opportunities come around when excellent companies are surrounded by unusual circumstances that cause the stock to be mis-appraised. Warren Buffett

• investing

In investments, there's no such thing as a called strike. You can stand there at the plate and the pitcher can throw a ball right down the middle; and if it's General Motors at 47 and you don't know enough to decide on General Motors at 47, you let it go right on by and no one's going to call a strike. The only way you can have a strike is to swing and miss. Warren Buffett

• investing

When managers want to get across the facts of the business to you, it can be done within the rules of accounting. Unfortunately, when they want to play games, at least in some industries, it can also be done within the rules of accounting. If you can't recognize the differences, you shouldn't be in the equity-picking business. Warren Buffett

• investing

It's not impossible to write [an accounting] footnote explaining deferred acquisition costs in life insurance or whatever you want to do. You can write it so you can understand it. If it's written so you can't understand it, I'm very suspicious. I won't invest in a company if I can't understand the footnote because I know they don't want me to understand it. Warren Buffett

• investing

You should invest in a business that even a fool can run, because someday a fool will. Warren Buffett

• investing

Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they're doing. Warren Buffett

• investing

A lot of great fortunes in the world have been made by owning a single wonderful business. If you understand the business, you don't need to own very many of them. Warren Buffett

• investing

My favorite time frame for holding a stock is forever. Warren Buffett

• investing

Stocks are simple. All you do is buy shares in a great business for less than the business is intrinsically worth, with managers of the highest integrity and ability. Then you own those shares forever. Warren Buffett

• investing

Experience tends to confirm a long-held notion that being prepared, on a few occasions in a lifetime, to act promptly in scale, in doing some simple and logical thing, will often dramatically improve the financial results of that lifetime. A few major opportunities, clearly recognizable as such, will usually come to one who continuously searches and waits, with a curious mind that loves diagnosis involving multiple variables. And then all that is required is a willingness to bet heavily when the odds are extremely favorable, using resources available as a result of prudence and patience in the past. Charlie Munger

• investing
• patience

The number one idea is to view a stock as an ownership of the business and to judge the staying quality of the business in terms of its competitive advantage. Look for more value in terms of discounted future cash-flow than you are paying for. Move only when you have an advantage. Charlie Munger

• investing

In investing, just as in baseball, to put runs on the scoreboard, one must watch the playing field, not the scoreboard. Warren Buffett

• investing

It’s not given to human beings to have such talent that they can just know everything about everything all the time. But it is given to human beings who work hard at it - who look and sift the world for a mispriced bet - that they can occasionally find one.

And the wise ones bet heavily when the world offers them that opportunity. They bet big when they have the odds. And the rest of the time they don't. It's just that simple. Charlie Munger

• gambling
• investing

Determine value apart from price; progress apart from activity; wealth apart from size. Charlie Munger

• investing
• wealth
• progress

We try more to profit from always remembering the obvious than from grasping the esoteric. Charlie Munger

• investing

Over the long term, it's hard for a stock to earn a much better return that the business which underlies it earns. If the business earns six percent on capital over forty years and you hold it for that forty years, you're not going to make much different than a six percent return - even if you originally buy it at a huge discount. Conversely, if a business earns eighteen percent on capital over twenty or thirty years, even if you pay an expensive looking price, you'll end up with one hell of a result. Charlie Munger

• investing

It's better to do nothing with your money than something you don't understand. Suze Orman

• investing
• money

Fear spreads fast, it is contagious. Doesn’t have anything to do with IQ. Confidence only comes back one at a time, not en masse. There are periods when fear paralyzes the investment world. You don’t want to owe money at that time, and if you have money then you want to buy at those times. Warren Buffett

• confidence
• investing
• fear

Risk means more things can happen than will happen. Elroy Dimson

• investing
• risk

Beating the market matters, but limiting risk matters just as much. Ultimately, investors have to ask themselves whether they are interested in relative or absolute returns. Losing 45 percent while the market drops 50 percent qualifies as market outperformance, but what a pyrrhic victory this would be for most of us. Seth Klarman

• investing

Before trying to compete in the zero-sum world of investing, you must ask yourself whether you have good reason to expect to be in the top half. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

[T]o achieve superior investment results, you have to hold nonconsensus views regarding value, and they have to be accurate. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

The key turning point in my investment management career came when I concluded that because the notion of market efficiency has relevance, I should limit my efforts to relatively inefficient markets where hard work and skill would pay off best. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

An accurate estimate of intrinsic value is the essential foundation for steady, unemotional and potentially profitable investing. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

[N]o asset is so good that it can't become a bad investment if bought at too high a price. And there are few assets so bad that they can't be a good investment when bought cheap enough. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

"Prices are too high" is far from synonymous with "the next move will be downward." Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

But every investor who's unwilling to throw in the towel on outperformance, and who chooses to deviate from the index in its pursuit, will have periods of significant underperformance. In fact, since many of the best investors stick most strongly to their approach—and since no approach will work all the time—the best investors can have some of the greatest periods of underperformance. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

When you boil it all down, it's the investor's job to intelligently bear risk for profit. Doing it well is what separates the best from the rest. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

[G]reat investors are those who take risks that are less than commensurate with the returns they earn. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

[L]oss is what happens when risk meets adversity. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

"[T]his time it's different." These four words should strike fear—and perhaps suggest an opportunity for profit—for anyone who understands the past and knows it repeats. Thus, it's essential that you be able to recognize this form of error when it arises. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

When things are going well, extrapolation introduces great risk. Whether it's company profitability, capital availability, price gains, or market liquidity, things that inevitably are bound to regress toward the mean are often counted on to improve forever. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

When things are going well and prices are high, investors rush to buy, forgetting all prudence. Then, when there's chaos all around and assets are on the bargain counter, they lose all willingness to bear risk and rush to sell. And it will ever be so. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

I've recently boiled down the main risks in investing to two: the risk of losing money and the risk of missing opportunity. It's possible to largely eliminate either one, but not both. In an ideal world, investors would balance these two concerns. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

Assets become overpriced because of investor behavior that overrates their merit and carries them aloft. This process shouldn't be expected to come to a halt when the price has risen to the “right” level or when you've sold it because you feel it's priced too high. Usually, the freight train rumbles on quite a bit further, and price judgments are much more likely to look wrong at first than right. Although understandable, this can be very hard to live with. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

Mastery over the human side of investing isn't sufficient for success, but combining it with analytical proficiency can lead to great results. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

The process of intelligently building a portfolio consists of buying the best investments, making room for them by selling lesser ones, and staying clear of the worst. The raw materials for the process consist of (a) a list of potential investments, (b) estimates of their intrinsic value, (c) a sense for how their prices compare with their intrinsic value, and (d) an understanding of the risks involved in each, and of the effect their inclusion would have on the portfolio being assembled. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

A high-quality asset can constitute a good or bad buy, and a low-quality asset can constitute a good or bad buy. The tendency to mistake objective merit for investment opportunity, and the failure to distinguish between good assets and good buys, get most investors into trouble. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

[T]here aren't always great things to do, and sometimes we maximize our contribution by being discerning and relatively inactive. Patient opportunism—waiting for bargains—is often your best strategy. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

You simply cannot create investment opportunities when they're not there. The dumbest thing you can do is to insist on perpetuating high returns—and give back your profits in the process. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

Predictions are most useful when they correctly anticipate change. If you predict that something won't change and it doesn't change, that prediction is unlikely to earn you much money. But accurately predicting change can be very profitable. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

Randomness (or luck) plays a huge part in life's results, and outcomes that hinge on random events should be viewed as different from those that do not. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

[M]any important financial phenomena follow long cycles, meaning those who experience an extreme event often retire or die off before the next recurrence. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

The superior investor never forgets that the goal is to find good buys, not good assets. Howard Marks

• investing

This is the source.

Stock prices will always be far more volatile than cash-equivalent holdings. Over the long term, however, currency-denominated instruments are riskier investments – far riskier investments – than widely-diversified stock portfolios that are bought over time and that are owned in a manner invoking only token fees and commissions. That lesson has not customarily been taught in business schools, where volatility is almost universally used as a proxy for risk. Though this pedagogic assumption makes for easy teaching, it is dead wrong: Volatility is far from synonymous with risk. Popular formulas that equate the two terms lead students, investors and CEOs astray. Warren Buffett

• investing

In investing, there are times when the best thing to do is nothing at all. Seth Klarman

• investing

In investing it is never wrong to change your mind. It is only wrong to change your mind and do nothing about it. Seth Klarman

• investing

I find it preposterous that a single number reflecting past price fluctuations could be thought to completely describe the risk in a security. Seth Klarman

• investing

The trick of successful investors is to sell when they want to, not when they have to. Investors who may need to sell should not own marketable securities other than U.S. Treasury bills. Seth Klarman

• investing

While knowing how to value businesses is essential for investment success, the first and perhaps most important step in the investment process is knowing where to look for opportunities. Seth Klarman

• investing

Investors frequently benefit from making investment decisions with less than perfect knowledge and are well rewarded for bearing the risk of uncertainty. The time other investors spend delving into the last unanswered detail may cost them the chance to buy in at prices so low that they offer a margin of safety despite the incomplete information. Seth Klarman

• investing

Usually a very long list of securities is not a sign of the brilliant investor, but of one who is unsure of himself. If the investor owns stock in so many companies that he cannot keep in touch with their managements directly or indirectly, he is rather sure to end up in worse shape than if he had owned stock in too few companies. An investor should always realize that some mistakes are going to be made and that he should have sufficient diversification so that an occasional mistake will not prove crippling. However, beyond this point he should take extreme care to own not the most, but the best. Philip Fisher

• investing

To make big money on investments it is unnecessary to get some answer to every investment that might be considered. What is necessary is to get the right answer a large proportion of the very small number of times actual purchases are made. Philip Fisher

• investing

[T]he heart of successful investing is knowing how to find the minority of stocks that in the years ahead will have spectacular growth in their per-share earnings. Philip Fisher

• investing

The realization that pleasure could be usefully forestalled dawned on us with great difficulty. It runs absolutely contrary to our ancient, fundamental animal instincts, which demand immediate satisfaction (particularly under conditions of deprivation, which are both inevitable and commonplace). And, to complicate the matter, such delay only becomes useful when civilization has stabilized itself enough to guarantee the existence of the delayed reward, in the future. If everything you save will be destroyed or, worse, stolen, there is no point in saving. Jordan Peterson

• investing

Risk is primarily the likelihood of permanent capital loss. But there's also such a thing as opportunity risk: the likelihood of missing out on potential gains. Howard Marks

• investing
• risk

Superior investing doesn't come from buying high-quality assets, but from buying when the deal is good, the price is low, the potential return is substantial, and the risk is limited. Howard Marks

• investing

There's only one form of intelligent investing, and that's figuring out what something's worth and buying it for that price or less. You can't have intelligent investing in the absence of quantification of value and insistence on an attractive purchase price. Any investment movement that's built around a concept other than the relationship between price and value is irrational. Howard Marks

• investing

Investors have to deal daily with two possible sources of error. The first is obvious: the risk of losing money. The second is a bit more subtle: the risk of missing opportunity. Investors can eliminate either one, but doing so will expose them entirely to the other. Howard Marks

• investing

We have to safeguard our portfolios (and our investment management businesses) against the danger stemming from the fact that the thing that's most likely to happen—which our understanding of cycles can tell us—may not happen until long after it first becomes likely. And we have to steel ourselves emotionally so as to be able to live through the potentially long time lag between reaching a well-reasoned conclusion and having it turn out to be correct. Howard Marks

• investing

In the real world, things generally fluctuate between "pretty good" and "not so hot." But in the world of investing, perception often swings from "flawless" to "hopeless." The pendulum careens from one extreme to the other, spending almost no time at "the happy medium" and rather little in the range of reasonableness. Howard Marks

• investing

Bad things tend to happen when we compare our portfolios with others, especially if they possess a lesser IQ and extracted a higher return. Michael Batnick

• investing