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

The market is a pendulum that forever swings between unsustainable optimism (which makes stocks too expensive) and unjustified pessimism (which makes them too cheap). The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.

Avoid second-quality issues in making up a portfolio unless they are demonstrable bargains.

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

A stock is not just a ticker symbol or an electronic blip; it is an ownership interest in an actual business, with an underlying value that does not depend on its share price.

The stock market resembles a huge laundry in which institutions take in large blocks of each others washing ... without rhyme or reason.

No matter how careful you are, the one risk no investor can ever eliminate is the risk of being wrong. Only by insisting on what Graham called the "margin of safety" - never overpaying, no matter how exciting an investment seems to be - can you minimize your odds of error.