Quotes from John C. Bogle

Net return is simply the gross return of your investment portfolio less the costs you incur. Keep your investment expenses low, for the tyranny of compounding costs can devastate the miracle of compounding returns.

Entrepreneurs or international conglomerateurs, or large financial institutions buy or create mutual fund management companies to create a return on their own capital. It's capitalism at work, where the rewards tend to go to the managers rather than the investors.

There no longer can be any doubt that the creation of the first index mutual fund was the most successful innovation - especially for investors - in modern financial history.

The market is often stupid, but you can't focus on that. Focus on the underlying value of dividends and earnings.

Well, I like regulation as little as anybody else. It can be intrusive. It can be detailed. It can be bureaucratic. It can be unevenly administered. It can be unfair. But most regulations that we have for mutual funds and for banks are regulations that we earned. We did something wrong and we're paying a price for it.

Enjoy the magic of compounding returns. Even modest investments made in one's early 20s are likely to grow to staggering amounts over the course of an investment lifetime.

A fiduciary standard means, basically, put the interests of the client first. No excuses. Period.

The malfeasance and misjudgments by our corporate, financial and government leaders, declining ethical standards, and the failure of our new agency society reflect a failure of capitalism.

New ideas that fly in the face of conventional wisdom of the day are always greeted with doubt and scorn, even fear.

There is no country like the United States, with its diversified industrial base, technology leadership, innovation and strong pressure to build companies to make them grow.

There is almost no limit to the ability of investors to ignore the lessons of the past.

I've been studying mutual funds since 1949, when I began researching my senior thesis at Princeton University.

While we would typically encourage young people to start saving for the future as early as possible, it's unlikely that a budding entrepreneur will be able to do so. The entrepreneur will need every bit of capital available for the business, which will likely crowd out personal savings.

I learned you work for what you get, and I feel sorry for people who haven't had that upbringing.

The stock market is a giant distraction from the business of investing.

Nothing is simpler than owning the stock market and holding it forever, and that's essentially the idea behind the index fund.

If you were to just design the perfect retirement plan, you would own the stock market or you would own the bond market. You would get all the costs or all that you possibly could out of the system. So on an annual basis, if the market went up 8 percent, you would get 7.8 or 7.9 percent.

I would advise someone who has just retired to be something in the broad range of 50/50 stocks and bonds.

I don't like going into stores, I don't like the whole process of buying things.

In investing, you get what you don't pay for. Costs matter. So intelligent investors will use low-cost index funds to build a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds, and they will stay the course. And they won't be foolish enough to think that they can consistently outsmart the market.

I've usually used the phrase 'stay the course' as one of the great rules of investment success.

Invest as efficiently as you can, using low-cost funds that can be bought and held for a lifetime.

The reality of life is, if you have a bagel shop and everybody is pouring into the doughnut shop across the street, if you want to stay in business, you start selling doughnuts.

I think average investors should not trade a lot. The evidence is overpowering. The more you trade, the less you earn.