Quotes from Peter Lynch

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.

So while the smaller fast growers risk extinction, the larger fast growers risk a rapid devaluation when they begin to falter.

The p/e ratio can be thought of as the number of years it will take the company to earn back the amount of your initial investment—assuming, of course, that the company's earnings stay constant.

To all the dozens of lessons we're supposed to have learned from October, I can add three: (1) don't let nuisances ruin a good portfolio; (2) don't let nuisances ruin a good vacation; and (3) never travel abroad when you're light on cash.

This is investing, where the smart money isn't so smart, and the dumb money isn't really as dumb as it thinks. Dumb money is only dumb when it listens to the smart money.

It's when you've decided to invest on your own that you ought to try going it alone. That means ignoring the hot tips, the recommendations from brokerage houses, and the latest "can't miss" suggestion from your favorite newsletter—in favor of your own research. It means ignoring the stocks that you hear Peter Lynch, or some similar authority, is buying.

To make this spectacular showing, you only had to find one big winner out of eleven. The more right you are about any one stock, the more wrong you can be on all the others and still triumph as an investor.

By now you might be wondering what's the point of investing in a stodgy old company such as IBM, GM, or U.S. Steel? There are several reasons you might do this. First, big companies are less risky, in that they generally are in no danger of going out of business. Second, they are likely to pay a dividend. Third, they have valuable assets that might be sold off at a profit.

The combination of new equipment and new chemicals turned the American farm into the most efficient food bank on earth, capable of producing more wheat, corn, and so forth, per acre than any other country's farms in the history of agriculture.

share of stock is not a lottery ticket. It's part ownership of a business.

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

A person who owns property and has a stake in the enterprise is likely to work harder and feel happier and do a better job than a person who doesn't.

They worked out a new deal between another group of investors (headed by John Peirce) and the Plymouth Company, which owned the land.

To me, an investment is simply a gamble in which you've managed to tilt the odds in your favor.

If you can follow only one bit of data, follow the earnings - assuming the company in question has earnings.

Only invest what you could afford to lose without that loss having any effect on your daily life in forseable future.

By the way, the odds against making a living in the day-trading business are about the same as the odds against making a living at racetracks, blackjack tables, or video poker.

Houses, like stocks, are most likely to be profitable when they're held for a long period of time. Unlike stocks, houses are likely to be owned by the same person for a number of years—seven, I think, is the average. Compare this to the

In dieting and in stocks, it is the gut and not the head that determines the results.

The great joke is that the next time is never like the last time, and yet we can't help readying ourselves for it anyway. This all reminds me of the Mayan conception of the universe.

In other words, I continue to think like an amateur as frequently as possible. GOING IT ALONE

The offspring of immigrant factory workers had a chance to go to college and become doctors, lawyers, executives, and even owners of the very companies where their parents and grandparents worked long hours for low pay.

First, you find the "market capitalization" ("market cap" for short) by multiplying the number of shares outstanding (let's say 100 million) by the current stock price (let's say $100 a share). One hundred million times $100 equals $10 billion, so that's the market cap for DotCom.com.

One reason bonds are so popular is that elderly people have most of the money in this country, and elderly people tend to live off interest.