Peter Lynch is a legendary figure in the world of investing. He was one of the most successful mutual fund managers in history, and he achieved this success by following a few simple rules.
In this article, we will take a look at some of his best quotes on investing, market timing, and more.
Many of these quotes are from his famous books: One Up on Wall Street and Beating the Street. These quotes are something all investors should read. Let's learn more about Peter Lynch's investing philosophy.
Peter Lynch quotes on investing
Peter Lynch's investing career spanned from 1977 until 1990. In that time, Lynch's Magellan Fund averaged a return of 29.0%, which is nearly double the S&P 500's 14.0% return during the same time frame.
Here are 45 of the best Peter Lynch quotes on investing:
1."Investing is fun and exciting, but dangerous if you don't do any work." - Peter Lynch
2."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." - Peter Lynch
3."You have to let the big ones make up for your mistakes." - Peter Lynch
4."There's no use diversifying into unknown companies just for the sake of diversity. A foolish diversity is the hobgoblin of small investors. That said, it isn't safe to own just one stock, because in spite of your best efforts, the one you choose might be the victim of unforeseen circumstances. In small portfolios, I'd be comfortable owning between three and ten stocks." - Peter Lynch
5."The Rule of 72 is useful in determining how fast money will grow. Take the annual return from any investment, expressed as a percentage, and divide it into 72. The result is the number of years it will take to double your money." - Peter Lynch
6."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." - Peter Lynch
7."If you can find a company that can get away with raising prices year after year without losing customers you've got a terrific investment." - Peter Lynch
8."Everyone has the brainpower to follow the stock market. If you made it through fifth-grade math, you can do it." - Peter Lynch
9."So while I was in college I did a little study on the freight industry, the air freight industry. And I looked at this company called Flying Tiger. And I actually put a thousand dollars in it and I remember I thought this air cargo was going to be a thing of the future." - Peter Lynch
10."Go for a business that any idiot can run - because sooner or later, any idiot probably is going to run it." - Peter Lynch
11."I think you have to learn that there's a company behind every stock, and that there's only one real reason why stocks go up. Companies go from doing poorly to doing well or small companies grow to large companies." - Peter Lynch
12."Well, I think the secret is if you have a lot of stocks, some will do mediocre, some will do okay, and if one of two of 'em go up big time, you produce a fabulous result. And I think that's the promise to some people." - Peter Lynch
13."Most investors would be better off in an index fund." - Peter Lynch
14."Never invest in a company without understanding its finances. The biggest losses in stocks come from companies with poor balance sheets." - Peter Lynch
15."The typical big winner in the Lynch portfolio generally takes three to ten years to play out." - Peter Lynch
16."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." - Peter Lynch
17."All the time and effort people devote to picking the right fund, the hot hand, the great manager have, in most cases, led to no advantage." - Peter Lynch
18."Actually Wall Street thinks just as the Greeks did. The early Greeks used to sit around for days and debate how many teeth a horse has. They thought they could figure it out just by sitting there, instead of checking the horse." - Peter Lynch
19."A lot of investors sit around and debate whether a stock is going up, as if the financial muse will give them the answer, instead of checking the company." - Peter Lynch
20."If you can follow only one bit of data, follow the earnings - assuming the company in question has earnings. I subscribe to the crusty notion that sooner or later earnings make or break an investment in equities. " - Peter Lynch
21."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." - Peter Lynch
22."Average investors can become experts in their own field and can pick winning stocks as effectively as Wall Street professionals by doing just a little research. " - Peter Lynch
23."People, who want to know how stocks fared on any given day ask, 'Where did the Dow close?' I'm more interested in how many stocks went up versus how many went down. These so-called advance/decline numbers paint a more realistic picture. " - Peter Lynch
24."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." - Peter Lynch
25."Your investor's edge is not something you get from Wall Street experts. It's something you already have. You can outperform the experts if you use your edge by investing in companies or industries you already understand." - Peter Lynch
26."If you can't find any companies that you think are attractive, put your money in the bank until you discover some." - Peter Lynch
27."Time is on your side when you own shares of superior companies." - Peter Lynch
28."The worst thing you can do is invest in companies you know nothing about. Unfortunately, buying stocks on ignorance is still a popular American pastime." - Peter Lynch
29."You can find good reasons to scuttle your equities in every morning paper and on every broadcast of the nightly news."- Peter Lynch
30."Equity mutual funds are the perfect solution for people who want to own stocks without doing their own research." - Peter Lynch
31."Gentlemen who prefer bonds don't know what they're missing." - Peter Lynch
32."Long-term investing has gotten so popular, it’s easier to admit you’re a crack addict than to admit you’re a short-term investor." - Peter Lynch
33."Visiting stores and testing products is one of the critical elements of the analyst’s job." - Peter Lynch
34."There seems to be an unwritten rule on Wall Street: If you don’t understand it, then put your life savings into it. Shun the enterprise around the corner, which can at least be observed, and seek out the one that manufactures an incomprehensible product." - Peter Lynch
35."The old Wall Street adage 'never invest in anything that eats or needs repairs' may apply to racehorses, but it's malarkey when it comes to houses." - Peter Lynch
36."The trick is not to learn to trust your gut feelings, but rather to discipline yourself to ignore them. Stand by your stocks as long as the fundamental story of the company hasn’t changed." - Peter Lynch
37."People who succeed in the stock market also accept periodic losses, setbacks, and unexpected occurrences. Calamitous drops do not scare them out of the game." - Peter Lynch
38."Whenever you invest in any company, you’re looking for its market cap to rise. This can’t happen unless buyers are paying higher prices for the shares, making your investment more valuable." - Peter Lynch
39."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." - Peter Lynch
40."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." - Peter Lynch
41."Charts are great for predicting the past." - Peter Lynch
42."The most important organ in the body as far as the stock market is concerned is the guts, not the head. Anyone can acquire the know-how for analyzing stocks." - Peter Lynch
43."You should not buy a stock because it's cheap but because you know a lot about it." - Peter Lynch
44."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?" - Peter Lynch
45."People who want to know how stocks fared on any given day ask, 'Where did the Dow close?' I'm more interested in how many stocks went up versus how many went down. These so-called advance/decline numbers paint a more realistic picture." - Peter Lynch
Takeaways from Peter Lynch quotes on investing
Peter Lynch believes that individuals who want to be successful in the stock market should be patient, persistent, and willing to do their own research. He also emphasizes the importance of ignoring gut feelings and instead relying on discipline and common sense.
Furthermore, he believes that it is crucial to invest in companies that are doing well operationally, rather than simply buying stocks because they are cheap.
Ultimately, Peter Lynch's quotes provide valuable insights into what it takes to be a successful investor.
Peter Lynch quotes on market timing
Peter Lynch believes that trying to time the market is a fruitless endeavor and that it cannot be done. He advocates investing in good companies over long periods instead of trying to predict when the market will go up or down.
Here are 16 of Peter Lynch's best quotes on market timing:
46."Bargains are the holy grail of the true stockpicker. The fact that 10 to 30 percent of our net worth is lost in a market sell-off is of little consequence. We see the latest correction not as a disaster but as an opportunity to acquire more shares at low prices. This is how great fortunes are made over time." - Peter Lynch
47."The real key to making money in stocks is not to get scared out of them." - Peter Lynch
48."I've found that when the market's going down and you buy funds wisely, at some point in the future you will be happy. You won't get there by reading: Now is the time to buy." - Peter Lynch
49."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." - Peter Lynch
50."If you go to Minnesota in January, you should know that it's gonna be cold. You don't panic when the thermometer falls below zero." - Peter Lynch
51."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." - Peter Lynch
52."A price drop in a good stock is only a tragedy if you sell at that price and never buy more." - Peter Lynch
53."To me, a price drop is an opportunity to load up on bargains from among your worst performers and your laggards that show promise." - Peter Lynch
54."Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections, or trying to anticipate corrections, than has been lost in corrections themselves." - Peter Lynch
55."A stock market decline is as routine as a January blizzard in Colorado. If you're prepared, it can't hurt you. A decline is a great opportunity to pick up the bargains left behind by investors who are fleeing the storm in panic." - Peter Lynch
56."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." - Peter Lynch
57."What the stock price does today, tomorrow, or next week is only a distraction." - Peter Lynch
58."In the summer of 1990, I was buying stocks and I was probably three or four months early there. But we had a great rally in 1991." - Peter Lynch
59."It would be wonderful if we could avoid the setbacks with timely exits, but nobody has figured out how to predict them." - Peter Lynch
60."If you can't find any companies that you think are attractive, put your money in the bank until you discover some." - Peter Lynch
61."I can't recall ever once having seen the name of a market timer on Forbes' annual list of the richest people in the world. If it were truly possible to predict corrections, you'd think somebody would have made billions by doing it." - Peter Lynch
Takeaways from Peter Lynch's quotes on timing the market
Peter Lynch, a successful investor, and stock market guru, is known for his thoughts on market timing. In the quotes above, he emphasizes the importance of being patient and not getting scared out of the market.
He also talks about how corrections are normal and should be expected. Instead of trying to find out when to sell stocks at the top of the market, try to keep them long-term. Buy the valuable stocks when there is a correction and add to positions that maintain solid fundamentals.
Overall, Peter Lynch's quotes about timing the market provide sage advice for anyone looking to get into investing or grow their portfolio.
Peter Lynch quotes on business
As a stock investor, Peter Lynch quotes show that he has acquired decades' worth of wisdom when it comes to businesses. These quotes are great for both investors analyzing businesses and for business owners.
Here are the 15 best Peter Lynch quotes on business:
62."The extravagance of any corporate office is directly proportional to management's reluctance to reward the shareholders." - Peter Lynch
63."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." - Peter Lynch
64."I think you have to learn that there's a company behind every stock and that there's only one real reason why stocks go up. Companies go from doing poorly to doing well or small companies grow to large companies." - Peter Lynch
65."In business, competition is never as healthy as total domination." - Peter Lynch
66."When you start to confuse Freddie Mac, Sallie Mae, and Fannie Mae with members of your family, and you remember 2,000 stock symbols but forget the children's birthdays, there's a good chance you've become too wrapped up in your work." - Peter Lynch
67."Know what you own, and know why you own it." - Peter Lynch
68."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." - Peter Lynch
69."The typical big winner in the Lynch portfolio generally takes three to ten years to play out." - Peter Lynch
70."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." - Peter Lynch
71."I talk to hundreds of companies a year and spend hour after hour in heady pow-wows with CEOs, financial analysts and my colleagues in the mutual-fund business, but I stumble onto the big winners in extracurricular situations, the same way you do." - Peter Lynch
72."Imagine if you borrowed your parents' car without permission and ran it into a tree, how much better you'd feel if you were incorporated." - Peter Lynch
73."If a picture is worth a thousand words, in business, so is a number." - Peter Lynch
74."Behind every stock is a company. Find out what it's doing." - Peter Lynch
75."What makes stocks valuable in the long run isn't the market. It's the profitability of the shares in the companies you own. As corporate profits increase, corporations become more valuable and sooner or later, their shares will sell for a higher price." - Peter Lynch
76."The biggest winners are surprises to me, and takeovers are even more surprising. It takes years, not months, to produce big results." - Peter Lynch
Takeaways from Peter Lynch's quotes on business
Peter Lynch's quotes emphasize the importance of understanding the business behind a stock. He also stresses the importance of patience when investing, and notes that big winners usually take years to emerge.
These insights are valuable for any investor looking to build a profitable long-term portfolio. When it comes to market competition, Peter Lynch believes that it is healthy for companies to have dominating market share.
This gives them the ability to control pricing power and increase profits over time. Peter Lynch's quotes about business remind investors that stock prices are ultimately determined by a company's profitability.
As long as a company is generating increasing profits, the stock price will eventually follow suit. Remember that as a stock investor, you should know about the business operations, profitability, and future prospects. This is critical to making sound investment decisions.
All in all, Peter Lynch quotes provides valuable insight for all investors, and his quotes on business should not be overlooked. By understanding these key concepts, you'll be well on your way to becoming a successful investor or business owner.
Peter Lynch quotes on life
As you can see above, Peter Lynch's quotes provide wise investing lessons. However, his philosophy on investing also applies to many other aspects of life. Investing can be a lifestyle.
Here are the best 27 Peter Lynch quotes on life:
77."You can't see the future through a rearview mirror" - Peter Lynch
78."I don't know anyone who said on their deathbed: 'Gee, I wish I'd spent more time at the office." - Peter Lynch
79."There is always something to worry about. Avoid weekend thinking and ignoring the latest dire predictions of the newscasters. Sell a stock because the company's fundamentals deteriorate, not because the sky is falling." - Peter Lynch
80."I deal in facts, not forecasting the future. That's crystal ball stuff. That doesn't work." - Peter Lynch
81."Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Suicide is a choice and I think if we work with that with kids, we'll get somewhere." - Peter Lynch
82."Don't bottom fish." - Peter Lynch
83."In our society, it's been the men who've handled most of the finances, and the women who've stood by and watched men botch things up." - Peter Lynch
84."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." - Peter Lynch
85."The person that turns over the most rocks wins the game. And that's always been my philosophy." - Peter Lynch
86."Improved turnout will give parliament and government the appearance of being more legitimate." - Peter Lynch
87."I've always been a great lover of baseball." - Peter Lynch
88."In stocks as in romance, ease of divorce is not a sound basis for commitment" - Peter Lynch
89."I'm always fully invested. It's a great feeling to be caught with your pants up." - Peter Lynch
90."As I look back on it now, it’s obvious that studying history and philosophy was much better preparation for the stock market than, say, studying statistics." - Peter Lynch
91."The natural-born investor is a myth." - Peter Lynch
92."The simpler it is, the better I like it." - Peter Lynch
93."Owning stocks is like having children -- don't get involved with more than you can handle." - Peter Lynch
94."Investing in stocks is an art, not a science, and people who’ve been trained to rigidly quantify everything have a big disadvantage." - Peter Lynch
95."Never invest in any idea you can't illustrate with a crayon." - Peter Lynch
96."The junior high schools and high schools of America have forgotten to teach one of the most important courses of all. Investing." - Peter Lynch
97."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." - Peter Lynch
98."If you're lucky enough to have been rewarded in life to the degree that I have, there comes a point at which you have to decide whether to become a slave to your net worth by devoting the rest of your life to increasing it or to let what you've accumulated begin to serve you." - Peter Lynch
99."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." - Peter Lynch
100."The best stock to buy is the one you already own." - Peter Lynch
101."Thousands of experts study overbought indicators, oversold indicators, head-and-shoulder patterns, put-call ratios, the Fed's policy on money supply, foreign investment, the movement of the constellations through the heavens, and the moss on oak trees, and they can't predict markets with any useful consistency, any more than the gizzard squeezers could tell the Roman emperors when the Huns would attack." - Peter Lynch
102."There's lots of stocks out there and all you need is a few of 'em. That's been my philosophy." - Peter Lynch
103."Hold no more stocks than you can remain informed on." - Peter Lynch
Takeaways from Peter Lynch's quotes on life
Peter Lynch is a great believer in self-improvement and believes that everyone has the potential to be successful. He also stresses the importance of saving and investing money, especially for young people.
Additionally, he recommends not getting bogged down by complicated strategies but instead keeping things simple. Peter Lynch reminds us that stock market investments are not an exact science - even experienced professionals can sometimes get it wrong.
So don't worry if you make a mistake; just learn from it and move on. Ultimately, becoming successful comes down to doing your homework, keeping an open mind, and staying disciplined.
Peter Lynch quotes on economics
Often economics will come up in the world of investing. Some people believe knowing a lot about it is important while others prefer to focus on businesses themselves. Peter Lynch has some great insights on the subject.
Here are the 7 best Peter Lynch quotes on economics:
104."If all the economists in the world were laid end to end, it wouldn't be a bad thing." - Peter Lynch
105."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." - Peter Lynch
106."I don't go near the money and the money doesn't go near me." - Peter Lynch
107."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." - Peter Lynch
108."In the long run, a portfolio of well-chosen stocks and/or equity mutual funds will always outperform a portfolio of bonds or a money-market account. In the long run, a portfolio of poorly chosen stocks won't outperform the money left under the mattress." - Peter Lynch
109."If you spend more than 13 minutes analyzing economic and market forecasts, you've wasted 10 minutes."- Peter Lynch
110."The more cash that builds up in the treasury, the greater the pressure to piss it away." - Peter Lynch
Takeaways from Peter Lynch's quotes on the economy
Peter Lynch's quotes on the economy underscore the importance of staying grounded in reality and not getting caught up in predictions or forecasts. He reminds us that no one can predict interest rates, the future direction of the economy, or the stock market.
It's best to focus on what is actually happening with businesses you're invested in. Additionally, he emphasizes the importance of long-term investing and staying disciplined even during downturns. Overall, these quotes provide a valuable reminder to stay humble and patient when investing, because the economy is difficult to predict.
Peter Lynch quotes on risk
Being able to evaluate risk is an essential skill for investors to have. Peter Lynch is known for his witty, yet wise thoughts on risk-taking.
Here are 8 of Peter Lynch's best quotes on risk:
111."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." - Peter Lynch
112."Long shots almost always miss the mark." - Peter Lynch
113."Spend at least as much time researching a stock as you would choosing a refrigerator." - Peter Lynch
114."Everyone has the brainpower to make money in stocks. Not everyone has the stomach." - Peter Lynch
115."Although it's easy to forget sometimes, a share is not a lottery ticket... it's part-ownership of a business." - Peter Lynch
116."If you don't study any companies, you have the same success buying stocks as you do in a poker game if you bet without looking at your cards." - Peter Lynch
117."If you hope to have more money tomorrow than you have today, you've got to put a chunk of your assets into stocks. Sooner or later, a portfolio of stocks or stock mutual funds will turn out to be a lot more valuable than a portfolio of bonds or CDs or money-market funds." - Peter Lynch
118.“Stocks are a safe bet, but only if you stay invested long enough to ride out the corrections." - Peter Lynch
Takeaways from Peter Lynch's quotes on risk
Investing involves risks. There are unforeseen events that even the best investors cannot predict. However, that does not mean you lower your risk while raising your potential for profits as an investor. Here are the key takeaways about risk-taking from Peter Lynch's quotes.
Don't Gamble
When you're gambling, you're hoping for a big payout without knowing what you're getting yourself into. The same goes for investing in stocks without doing any research. It's a much safer bet to learn about the company and the stock before investing.
Consider Stocks
Lynch's experience has shown that stocks are a much safer investment than gambling, as long as you're willing to ride out the corrections.
Long-Term Mentality
Peter Lynch's quotes emphasize the importance of staying invested for the long term. If you sell every time the market corrects, you'll miss out on the eventual rebound.
Emotional Control
One of Peter Lynch's most important messages is that stock prices go up and down. It's important to remember that these corrections are normal and that prices will eventually rebound.
By following Peter Lynch's advice on risk-taking, you can become a successful investor too. Do your research, invest for the long term, and don't be afraid of market corrections.
Peter Lynch quotes on stock picking
Many savvy investors have made fortunes picking the correct stock. However, many market participants have also lost money by picking the wrong stocks. Peter Lynch is one of the most successful stock pickers in history and has a lot to teach investors about what to look for in a stock.
Here are the 9 best Peter Lynch quotes on stock picking:
119."When people discover they are no good at baseball or hockey, they put away their bats and their skates and they take up amateur golf or stamp collecting or gardening. But when people discover they are no good at picking stocks, they are likely to continue to do it anyway." - Peter Lynch
120."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." - Peter Lynch
121."You have to keep your priorities straight if you plan to do well in stocks." - Peter Lynch
122."Well, I think the secret is if you have a lot of stocks, some will do mediocre, some will do okay, and if one of two of 'em go up big time, you produce a fabulous result. And I think that's the promise to some people." - Peter Lynch
123."Searching for companies is like looking for grubs under rocks: if you turn over 10 rocks you'll likely find one grub; if you turn over 20 rocks you'll find two." - Peter Lynch
124."Logic is the subject that has helped me most in picking stocks, if only because it taught me to identify the peculiar illogic of Wall Street." - Peter Lynch
125."You shouldn't just pick a stock - you should do your homework." - Peter Lynch
126."My method for picking stocks has never changed. When businesses go from crappy to semicrappy, there's money to be made." - Peter Lynch
127."The S&P is up 343.8 percent for 10 years. That is a four-bagger. The general equity funds are up 283 percent. So it's getting worse, the deterioration by professionals is getting worse. The public would be better off in an index fund." - Peter Lynch
Takeaways from Peter Lynch's quotes on stock picking
Stock picking isn't easy. Most people choose the wrong ones and lose money. Peter Lynch is one of the most successful stock pickers in history, and he has a lot to teach investors about what to look for in a stock.
When looking for stocks to buy, you should focus on businesses that have gone from crappy to semicrappy. This means that there's potential for them to improve and make you money. You should also do your homework on the stock before investing.
This includes research on the company and the stock itself. Peter Lynch's experience has shown that this is a much safer bet than gambling on stocks blindly. Index funds are a good option for investors who want to avoid the hassle of stock picking.
Peter Lynch is a big advocate of these funds, and they have outperformed most professional equity funds in recent years.
The importance of Peter Lynch Quotes
Peter Lynch is one of the most successful stock pickers in history, and he has a lot to teach investors about what to look for in a stock. As an investor, his quotes on investing are essential reading. Peter Lynch's quotes show his philosophy of investing, which is to find good businesses and stick with them for the long term.
Peter Lynch also believes that investors should not be afraid of market corrections, and should do their homework on stocks before investing. Lastly, Peter Lynch recommends index funds as a safe and easy way to invest in the stock market.
You don't need to over diversify and pick 5-10x stocks often, just one or two successes along with investing in index funds will benefit the average investor in the long term. Keep in mind that Peter Lynch's advice should not be taken as gospel - there are no guarantees when it comes to investing.
However, following his advice can help you improve your chances of making money in the stock market. If you would like to learn more about Peter Lynch, you can start by reading his books or watching one of his lectures:
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