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.

It is absurd to think that the general public can ever make money out of market forecasts.

The memory of the financial community is proverbially and distressingly short.

In the old legend the wise men finally boiled down the history of mortal affairs into a single phrase: 'This too will pass.'

The intelligent investor should recognize that market panics can create great prices for good companies and good prices for great companies.

It should be remembered that a decline of 50% fully offsets a preceding advance of 100%.

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.