In my experience, a plethora of quotes can teach the timeless principles of proper finance and investing. I’m not going to lie to you; it was tough to sift through what I thought would be the top 10 best quotes that encapsulate the proper way to invest and navigate finances in today’s complex money world. But I managed it anyway. Here are my top 10 best financial quotes and the enduring lessons they teach investors.

What Are the Best Financial Quotes?

Here are my favorites.

“The four most dangerous words in investing are, ‘It’s different this time.'” — Sir John Templeton

Famed investor Sir John Templeton recognized very well the dangers of fear-based selling. Despite the stock market always bouncing back to new heights given enough time, it is only natural for our human System 1 to give in to loss aversion and sell during a bear market. The justification for making such a dumb move is comprehensively summarized by this quote. Of course, every bear market is different, but it should not be used as a reason to sell.

The quote also nicely summarizes any irrational exuberance/bubbles regarding suddenly hot and mouth-watering assets. During the dot.com boom of the late 1990s, investors were using these same four words of “it’s different this time” to justify the run-up in valuations. Warren Buffett himself was criticized for losing his touch as Berkshire got demolished by the rising price of internet stocks. Wall Street utilized these dangerous four words to justify the flak it dished out to the Oracle of Omaha.

But in the end, Warren was right; it wasn’t different this time. Prices came crashing down (as they tend to do) back to their more fundamental valuations. And that was no different from the Nikkei crash, the Nifty Fifty, the Great Depression, America’s Railroad crash, and heck, even as far back as the Tulip Bulb Mania. Time and time again, it’s never different this time. No offense to those who “invest” in Bitcoin, but given that this newlyfangled digitalized technology is truly different from anything the world has ever seen, the cryptobros are once again using these same dangerous four words, making me skeptical of Bitcoin’s future return in the long run. Yes, the technology is different, but as Sir John says, you should not confuse this difference with how the asset will perform in the long run.

Speaking of the Oracle of Omaha . . .

“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” — Warren Buffett

Ha! Nothing grabs attention like naked people! It might seem like everybody in a certain investment is just killing it. Who doesn’t hear stories of Bitcoin millionaires or investors who have been riding Apple or Nvidia to the top? But make no mistake, Bitcoin could go to zero tomorrow, and Apple and Nvidia will likely not stay on top forever, so Warren’s quote really points to having a diversified portfolio. Every asset class will have its day in the sun—and its eventual fall from grace.

Here are some more Buffettisms:

“Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” — Warren Buffett

This quote offers awesome advice on how to avoid massive losses and how to score big time when investing in the stock market. When asset valuations are through the roof, our human System 1 brains will think that prices will continue to rise, a bias known as recency bias. Dopamine continually hits your nucleus accumbens as prices rise and rise and rise. The prices of stocks are now fueled by greed, and it would be a prudent time to have a healthy dose of fear to prevent you from investing more than your written financial plan would state. And vice versa; when prices are falling, fear sets in, and loss aversion fools investors into selling more and more, further tanking prices and making them highly attractive to keep buying as per your written investment plan.

Now, I have a little confession. Despite knowing the second half of this quote, I deviated from my written financial plan and invested some of my emergency fund during the bear markets of 2020 and 2022. I know, it was blasphemy! But it did work out to my advantage.

More information here:

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

Ahh, the father of value investing and Warren Buffett’s mentor, this quote can be found in Ben Graham’s seminal work, The Intelligent Investor. Despite writing a whole book full of numbers, formulas, and valuations, Ben recognized the importance of behavioral finance even before the field had been created. You could have all the knowledge in the investing world and still fall prey to loss aversion, herding, FOMO, etc. Speaking of FOMO . . .

“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.” — Sir Isaac Newton

As a classic example that intelligence does not lead to successful investing, due to our behavioral foibles, Sir Isaac was the premier intellectual of his day and in all of human history. The inventor of calculus and the describer of the laws of gravity and motion, the dude was phenomenally perspicacious. This even translated into the financial world as he served as England’s Master of the Mint (do you know about the ridges on the edge of gold coins to see if people were shaving the coin down? Yeah, that was him).

And yet he sucked at investing! He fell victim to the South Sea Bubble back in the 18th century. In his defense, he initially recognized the overpriced South Sea stock and actually sold his initial shares in the company for a £7,000 profit. However, his System 1 kept knocking on his brain, and he continued to watch South Sea Company stock make its meteoric rise. He could not resist the FOMO, bought back in around the stock’s peak, rode the rollercoaster down, and lost approximately £20,000, roughly $3 million-$20 million in modern value. This led to his now famous and unfortunate statement above—which teaches us that, when it comes to investing, it’s not a lack of knowledge that prevents success. It’s the giving in to our behavioral instincts that we must fight.

“Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas.” — Paul Samuelson

The first American to win the Nobel Prize in economics, Paul Samuelson recognized that investing is a long-term game where patience is of paramount importance to let your investments grow. It is not supposed to be gambling where the excitement of constant dopamine influx to your nucleus accumbens drives excitement. The best results are found if you keep dollar-cost averaging into the market on a consistent, unemotional basis, without frequent trading or chasing the latest craze (I know I keep bashing it, but Bitcoin, anyone?).

More information here:

The next four quotes are from the revered John Bogle. Given our worship for Saint Jack around here at WCI, I figured he deserved the most quotes.

“Don’t look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack!” — John Bogle

This is very sage advice from Jack about not investing in the few stocks that likely will not hit it big and instead buying the whole market, which will guarantee that you own whatever stocks end up going to the moon. According to research performed by Professor Hendrik Bessembinder, only 4% of companies represent 100% of the net stock market’s gain over the past century. The other 96% of companies matched the return of riskless T-bills. That is a very tiny chance that the one or two or three stocks—heck, even the 30-40 stocks—that you own will be big winners. Best to invest in all the companies out there through an index fund.

“Don’t just do something, stand there!”— John Bogle

I absolutely love this quote. Not only does it have salience in inverting the usual, “Don’t just stand there, do something,” adage, but it recognizes a dangerous behavioral bias that can tank our investing returns, aptly named action bias. When we see the market tank, we should just watch, knowing that a falling market is just noise when it comes to investing.

“You get what you DON’T pay for.” — John Bogle

It might seem so obvious now, but high fees eating into your return were never even considered until Jack made it his senior thesis while a Princeton undergrad. In that work, he hinted at the possibility of just having an “index” fund where there would be no fees and every dollar an investor paid would be invested in the market. You may not realize this, given that Vanguard and index investing are synonymous in the investing world, but Vanguard itself was founded as an actively managed shop. Jack, having been ousted as the CEO at the Wellington Fund, retained a relationship with his former firm where he could form a company to play an administrative (but not advisory/management) role for Wellington’s actively managed funds.

Thus, Vanguard was born. Technically, its first 11 funds were actively managed. Jack’s invention of the first index fund available to retail investors played a minimal role in Vanguard’s initial success, having been dubbed “Bogle’s Folly” and garnering hatred from the finance industry. It was actually the low fees and slashing of commissions that really stood out to investors. It was more Vanguard’s mutual fund structure, where the investors were also owners in the company, that allowed for the low fees and its initial success. As more and more evidence came out that Vanguard’s low-fee philosophy resulted in their funds beating other, more expensive funds, that is when indexing came into the limelight as the lowest-cost way to gain exposure to the market. Vanguard’s success is truly a reflection of the founder’s above quotation.

More information here:

“I’ve said ‘stay the course’ a thousand times, and I meant it every time. It is the most important single piece of investment wisdom I can give to you.” — John Bogle

Sage words from a sage man. It seems such an easy thing to do, but it is incredibly difficult to stay the course. When you see the market tanking and you are losing hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of dollars, your amygdala starts SCREAMING in your brain to sell. Or you see Bitcoin (I know, I keep hating on BTC!) rising faster than a rocket headed into orbit, and you suddenly have both your amygdala and nucleus accumbens telling the rest of your brain to buy, buy, buy! Your System 1 brain is telling you to gamble, but we must adhere to Jack’s advice above.

Ok, I know I said 10 quotes, but I couldn’t help but add a bonus.

“In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” — Benjamin Graham

Back to the father of value investing, this quote really emphasizes how short-term volatility of the stock market means nothing. It’s like my buddies and me making bets in the preseason on who is going to win the Super Bowl, where I’m confident that my Giants will make it to the big game. But as the season progresses and we get closer to the end of the season, the eventual winner gets clearer and clearer, until finally the last whistle blows in February and we get a Super Bowl champion.

The stock market works similarly, where investors cast their vote in the short term, throwing around money and affecting stock valuations based on what they feel is the right price of a stock. But as you zoom out over time and let these companies do their thing, a clearer picture emerges of the actual price of the stock or the stock market based on actual fundamentals like earnings, dividends, etc. With this one quote, Ben summarizes exactly how stock market prices work and why we should never make decisions and investments in the short term. Instead, we should stay the course, as mentioned in the Bogle quote above, to receive and earn the market’s true value.

Still on the fence about attending WCICON or buying the Continuing Financial Education courses? Check out these eight WCI presentation replays, and you can take in the wisdom of speakers like Dr. Jim Dahle, Dr. Tyler Scott, and Dr. Dawn Baker. Best of all, it's totally free!

Do you think this is a comprehensive list? Are there any financial quotes that you think should have made the list? Which ones are your favorites? 

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