Peter Lynch Quotes

It's human nature to keep doing something as long as it's pleasurable and you can succeed at it, which is why the world population continues to double every 40 years.

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

Although it's easy to forget sometimes, a share is not a lottery ticket... it's part-ownership of a business.

Never invest in any idea you can't illustrate with a crayon

When stocks are attractive, you buy them. Sure, they can go lower. I've bought stocks at $12 that went to $2, but then they later went to $30. You just don't know when you can find the bottom.

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

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.

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

The person that turns over the most rocks wins the game. And that's always been my philosophy.

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

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

Just because you buy a stock and it goes up does not mean you are right. Just because you buy a stock and it goes down does not mean you are wrong.

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

If you can't find any companies that you think are attractive, put your money in the bank until you discover some.

The stock market really isn't a gamble, as long as you pick good companies that you think will do well, and not just because of the stock price.

You get recessions, you have stock market declines. If you don't understand that's going to happen, then you're not ready, you won't do well in the markets.

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

In this business if you're good, you're right six times out of ten. You're never going to be right nine times out of ten.

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.

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.

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.

The best stock to buy is the one you already own.

There's lots of stocks out there and all you need is a few of 'em. That's been my philosophy.

During the Gold Rush, most would-be miners lost money, but people who sold them picks, shovels, tents and blue-jeans (Levi Strauss) made a nice profit.

When management owns stock, then rewarding the shareholders becomes a first priority, whereas when management simply collects a paycheck, then increasing salaries becomes a first priority.

The typical big winner in the Lynch portfolio generally takes three to ten years to play out.

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

Hold no more stocks than you can remain informed on.

I don't know anyone who said on their deathbed: 'Gee, I wish I'd spent more time at the office.'

Investing in stocks is an art, not a science, and people who've been trained to rigidly quantify everything have a big disadvantage.

Absent a lot of surprises, stocks are relatively predictable over twenty years. As to whether they're going to be higher or lower in two to three years, you might as well flip a coin to decide.

Most investors would be better off in an index fund.

There's no shame in losing money on a stock. Everybody does it. What is shameful is to hold on to a stock, or worse, to buy more of it when the fundamentals are deteriorating.

You have to keep your priorities straight if you plan to do well in stocks.

An important key to investing is to remember that stocks are not lottery tickets.

You have to let the big ones make up for your mistakes.

The biggest winners are surprises to me, and takeovers are even more surprising. It takes years, not months, to produce big results.

Long shots almost always miss the mark.

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

My method for picking stocks has never changed. When businesses go from crappy to semicrappy, there's money to be made.

Everyone has the brainpower to make money in stocks. Not everyone has the stomach. If you are susceptible to selling everything in a panic, you ought to avoid stocks and mutual funds altogether.

The basic story remains simple and never-ending. Stocks aren't lottery tickets. There's a company attached to every share.

Everyone has the brainpower to follow the stock market. If you made it through fifth-grade math, you can do it.

In stocks as in romance, ease of divorce is not a sound basis for commitment.

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

If you can find a company that can get away with raising prices year after year without losing customers (an addictive product such as cigarettes fills the bill), you've got a terrific investment.

There are substantial rewards for adopting a regular routine of investing and following it no matter what, and additional rewards for buying more shares when most investors are scared into selling.

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

If you have the stomach for stocks, but neither the time nor the inclination to do the homework, invest in equity mutual funds.

The extravagance of any corporate office is directly proportional to management's reluctance to reward the shareholders.