1. Successful investing is only common sense. Each system for investing will eventually become obsolete.
2. The time to buy a stock is when the short-term owners have finished selling and the time to sell a stock is often when short-term owners have finished their buying.
3. Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria. The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy and sell.
4. “This time is different” are among the most costly four words in market history.
5. Search for bargains. You should try to buy that particular investment whose market price is lowest in relation to your estimate of its true value.
6. I never ask if the market is going to go up or down, because I don’t know, and besides it doesn’t matter. I search nation after nation for stocks, asking: “Where is the one that is lowest priced in relation to what I believe it’s worth?”
7. The only investors who shouldn’t diversify are those who are right 100 percent of the time.
8. If you are diversified among different forms of wealth, nations, and industries, you’ll be safe in the long-run.
9. Experience teaches us that one of the most common errors in selecting stocks for purchase, or for sale, is the tendency to emphasize only the most obvious factor; namely the temporary outlook for sales and profits of the company.
10. The only certainty about the future is the fact that it will be different from the past.
11. For those properly prepared in advance, a bear market in stocks is not a calamity but an opportunity.
12. An investor who has all the answers doesn’t even understand the questions.
13. Diversify. In stocks and bonds, as in much else, there is safety in numbers.
14. …success is a process of continually seeking answers to new questions.
15. People are always asking me where is the outlook good, but that’s the wrong question…. The right question is: Where is the outlook the most miserable?
16. If you begin with prayer, you will think more clearly and make fewer mistakes.