Top 10 Investing Quotes

In a recent podcast episode, Pierre Taljaard and I shared our best quotes on investing. Pierre is based in South Africa, where he runs a company called Simple Wealth. He’s also a co-host of Humans Under Management, my behavioural financial advice conference in South Africa.

Click here to listen to the podcast episode.

What Didn’t Make the Cut

Choosing a top 10 is extremely difficult. Here are a few of the quotes that didn’t make the cut!

“Men, it has been well said, think in herds. It will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” - Charles MacKay, Scottish poet and journalist

“Rapidly changing industries are the enemy of the investor”. - Mohnish Pabrai, American businessman

“In the business world, the rear-view mirror is always clearer than the windshield.” - Warren Buffet

“Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make.” - Donald Trump

“Wall Street sells stocks and bonds, but what it really peddles is hope.” - Jason Zweig, Wall Street Journal writer

“Nobody knows nothing.” - John “Jack” Bogle

“More people lost money waiting for corrections and anticipating corrections than the actual corrections”. - Fidelity Manager Peter Lynch

“I love quotes… but in the end, knowledge has to be converted to action or it’s worthless.” - Tony Robbins

“If you see a bandwagon, it's too late”. - British financier James Goldsmith

Pierre’s Top 10 Investing Quotes

10.

The big money is not in the buying or the selling, but in the waiting.
— Charlie Munger

9. The following quote is one I used it to open the entire HUM conference series.

The investor’s chief problem, and even his worst enemy, is likely to be himself.
— Benjamin Graham



8. The pandemic-induced dip in the market in March 2020 reminded us of the following quote..

The four most dangerous words in investing are ‘this time it’s different’.
— Sir John Templeton



7. One of the key lessons every financial literate understands is the magic of owning the great companies of the world.

Equity is completely different from other classes of investments. It’s the only one that captures human ingenuity, which is the ultimate asset.
— Eddy Elfenbein

6.

Humans are wired to act; markets tend to reward inaction.
— Dr. Daniel Crosby



5.

The finance industry talks too much about what to do, and not enough about what happens in your head when you try to do it.
— Morgan Housel

4.

The stock market is designed to transfer money from the active to the patient.
— Warren Buffett

3.

All financial success comes from acting on a plan. A lot of financial failures come from reacting to the markets.
— Nick Murray

2. The financial literate knows that you can’t get rid of volatility without giving up returns.

Volatility is the price of admission. The prize inside are superior long-term returns. You have to pay the price to get the returns.
— Morgan Housel

1. Pierre’s top quote perfectly sums up what we stand for and how we lead clients through their financial journey.

There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
— Warren Buffett

Andy’s Top 10 Investing Quotes

10.

I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.
— Isaac Newton

9.

The time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets.
— Baron Rothschild

8.

There is no such thing as no risk. There’s only this choice of what to risk, and when to risk it.
— Nick Murray

7.

90% of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.
— Andrew Carnegie

6.

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.
— Jim Rohn

5. I like this quote because so many people carry around negative stock market stories of how ‘the stock market did this, the stock market did that.’ The stock market did nothing; you’ve caused all the problems.

The main purpose of the stock market is to make fools of as many men as possible.
— Bernard Baruch, American financier

4. We know that in the long term, the stock markets far outperform inflation, and that’s really the only metric you should be concerned about. I like that – people are so concerned about ‘the now’ and ‘the now investing’ that they disregard the weight of history.

Fear incites human action far more urgently than does the impressive weight of historical evidence.
— Jeremy Siegel

3. I’ve talked before about the -50% and we might be heading towards a bigger number than that, but I go all in on volatility. It’s tough financial love.

If you’re not willing to react with equanimity to a market price decline of 50% two or three times a century, you’re not fit to be a common shareholder and you deserve the mediocre result you’re going to get.
— Charlie Munger

2. Just because it feels comfortable doesn’t mean it’s financially right. Yes, you’ll be able to sleep well at night if you choose the emotional answer, and you’ll be convinced it’s the right answer, but it’s often not. If you were a financial robot, you’d take a different path, because you could just remove the emotions.

In other times of your life, overstretching yourself and buying an asset when you’re in your 30s and 40s might feel uncomfortable, but you’ll reap the rewards when you’re 50 or 60 and you’ve built the wealth.

In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.
— American entrepreneur Robert Arnott

1.

Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it,
— Albert Einstein

We noticed there were three common themes – patience, compound interest and simplicity.

This was Pierre’s first appearance on the podcast, but I’m sure it won’t be his last. If you want to find out more about him, visit his website: simplewealth.co.za.