Thoughts on investing

Image: Chaitanya Dinesh Surpur

Speculation is an effort, probably unsuccessful, to turn a little money into a lot. Investment is an effort, which should be successful, to prevent a lot of money from becoming a little.
—Fred Schwed Jr

The broker said the stock was “poised to move”. Silly me,  I thought he meant up.
—Randy Thurman

It amazes me how people are often more willing to act based on little or no data than to use data that is a challenge to assemble.
—Robert J Shiller

The four most expensive words in the English language are: ‘This time it’s different’.
—John Templeton

Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas.
—Paul Samuelson

Never trust a stockbroker under the age of 60.
—David R Wommack

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

Based on my own personal experience—both as an investor in recent years and an expert witness in years past—rarely do more than three or four variables really count. Everything else is noise.
—Martin Whitman

If investing is entertaining, if you’re having fun, you’re probably not making any money. Good investing is boring.
—George Soros

If you have trouble imagining a 20 percent loss in the stock market, you shouldn’t be in stocks.
—John Bogle

Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.
—John Maynard Keynes

When you’re an investor, you can look at the quantitative and qualitative elements of an investment, but there’s a third aspect: What you feel in your gut.
—Kevin O’Leary

There is nothing riskier than the widespread perception that there is no risk.
—Howard Marks

“Games are won by players who focus on the playing field—not by those whose eyes are glued to the scoreboard.”
—Warren Buffett

“Buy not on optimism, but on arithmetic.”
—Benjamin Graham