Peter Lynch Quotes

Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections, or trying to anticipate corrections, than has been lost in corrections themselves.

Go for a business that any idiot can run - because sooner or later, any idiot probably is going to run it.

The real key to making money in stocks is not to get scared out of them.

Everyone has the brain power to make money in stocks. Not everyone has the stomach.

The list of qualities (an investor should have) include patience, self-reliance, common sense, a tolerance for pain, open-mindedness, detachment, persistence, humility, flexibility, a willingness to do independent research, an equal willingness to admit mistakes, and the ability to ignore general panic.

Never invest in a company without understanding its finances. The biggest losses in stocks come from companies with poor balance sheets.

Know what you own, and know why you own it.

Nobody can predict interest rates, the future direction of the economy or the stock market. Dismiss all such forecasts and concentrate on what's actually happening to the companies in which you've invested

You should not buy a stock because it's cheap but because you know a lot about it.

In the long run, it's not just how much money you make that will determine your future prosperity. It's how much of that money you put to work by saving it and investing it.

Your ultimate success or failure will depend on your ability to ignore the worries of the world long enough to allow your investments to succeed.

I've always said, the key organ here isn't the brain, it's the stomach. When things start to decline - there are bad headlines in the papers and on television - will you have the stomach for the market volatility and the broad-based pessimism that tends to come with it?

All the math you need in the stock market you get in the fourth grade.

You can't see the future through a rearview mirror

Invest in what you know.

If you spend more than 13 minutes analyzing economic and market forecasts, you've wasted 10 minutes

Long shots almost always miss the mark.

If you're prepared to invest in a company, then you ought to be able to explain why in simple language that a fifth grader could understand, and quickly enough so the fifth grader won't get bored.

When you sell in desperation, you always sell cheap.

Charts are great for predicting the past.

A price drop in a good stock is only a tragedy if you sell at that price and never buy more. To me, a price drop is an opportunity to load up on bargains from among your worst performers and your laggards that show promise. If you can't convince yourself "When I'm down 25 percent, I'm a buyer" and banish forever the fatal thought "When I'm down 25 percent, I'm a seller," then you'll never make a decent profit in stocks.

Often, there is no correlation between the success of a company's operations and the success of its stock over a few months or even a few years. In the long term, there is a 100 percent correlation between the success of the company and the success of its stock. This disparity is the key to making money; it pays to be patient, and to own successful companies.

You only need a few good stocks in your lifetime. I mean how many times do you need a stock to go up ten-fold to make a lot of money? Not a lot.

Time is on your side when you own shares of superior companies.

It only takes a handful of big winners to make a lifetime of investing worthwhile.