Benjamin Graham Quotes

The essence of a good investment manager is one who studies a given business and extrapolates the future cash flows that the business is likely to generate over the next several years. Based on the cash flow and asset assessment, they can then arrive at their expected rate of return if they bought a fraction of that business at a given price.

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.

Making an investment decision is like formulating a scientific hypothesis and submitting it to a practical test.

When it comes to investments, I have to go to someone else to understand them, but then I have to make a judgment. I can't do that if I don't have a basic understanding myself.

When you come to 'Shark Tank,' the only person you should listen to is me, because you know you're getting the truth. I'll decide if it's worth it, and after I'm finished, the rest of the people can look into it.

The fundamental work of investment management is filtering. The question is what do you filter.

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.

Good analysis is very useful when you want to convert a political decision into an investment. It can also go the other way and drive policy.

We reviewed our process at Greylock and discovered that the best investments are non-obvious enough that they result in a mixed vote by our partnership.

Just because a stock is down doesn't mean it's a great buy.

I'm a very commonsense guy - I just look at the viability of the idea, if I feel the team has the ability to execute the idea. I also look at the investment syndicate, the size of the market, and then a lot of gut married on top of it.

We don't prognosticate macroeconomic factors, we're looking at our companies from a bottom-up perspective on their long-run prospects of returning.

Investigate carefully before you invest. Spend as much time researching the investment as you spend earning the money.

The investment game always involves considering both quality and price, and the trick is to get more quality than you pay for in price. It's just that simple.

So if you are evaluating others (or yourself!) in the investment field, think out some standards - apply them - interpret them.

Investors must keep in mind that there's a difference between a good company and a good stock. After all, you can buy a good car but pay too much for it.

It is not enough for [the investor] to know all the factors that can possibly contribute to the determination of a future event. In order to anticipate correctly they must also anticipate correctly the quantity as it were of each factor's contribution and the instant at which its contribution will become effective.

Spend at least as much time researching a stock as you would choosing a refrigerator.

Investment must be rational; if you can't understand it, don't do it.

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

I have always believed that a single talented analyst, working very hard, can cover an amazing amount of investment landscape, and this belief remains unchallenged in my mind.

Before you invest, you must ensure that you have realistically assessed your probability of being right and how you will react to the consequences of being wrong.

You're looking for a mispriced gamble. That's what investing is. And you have to know enough to know whether the gamble is mispriced. That's value investing.

Investing is not as tough as being a top-notch bridge player. All it takes is the ability to see things as they really are.

The critical investment factor is determining the intrinsic value of a business and paying a fair or bargain price.