Best known to the world as “the father of value investing,” Benjamin Graham was one of the best financial thinkers of his time. The author of two books, Graham, emphasized independent thinking and ensuring that you look at stock prices separately from a business’s fundamentals.  

Because he was so prolific in the financial world, it won’t be surprising to learn that Graham’s teachings are still valid and valuable decades after his death. Among his many students who went on to success, Warren Buffet described Graham as the second most influential person in his life. 

For these reasons, we can look at Benjamin Graham’s best quotes and see how applicable they are to every 50-year-old who needs a little refresher about the investing world. 

1. “Investing isn’t about beating others at their game. It’s about controlling yourself at your own game.” 

• Source: Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor 

Takeaway: Control Your Strategy

The most significant idea here is that you don’t need to worry about who is doing better than you in the market. There will always be someone out there earning more and having more success. Don’t worry about that. Instead, only worry about what you can control with your investments and opportunities. 

2. “The intelligent investor should recognize that market panics can create great prices for good companies and good prices for great companies.” 

• Source: Benjamin Graham

Takeaway: Two Financial Truths

According to Benjamin Graham, this quote is one of the key principles of value investing, in that market panics can create opportunities for disciplined investors. When the market drops, financially sound companies can see their stock prices drop significantly while remaining a sound investment. The opposite is also true, as companies that are the most profitable and best in their field can also see stock prices drop during market declines, leading to chances to buy the stock at a reasonable price. 

3. “It is easy, of course, to pick out good companies that are better than others. But that is not the same thing as picking out good stocks to buy at their current prices.” 

• Source: Benjamin Graham

Takeaway: Make Smart Choices

As a 50-year-old investor, you may think that any time is a good time to buy a blue-chip stock like Apple. However, the reality is that it’s very easy to pick out the best companies of which you want to own stock, but you need to be more mindful of when you buy them. You can undoubtedly buy Apple stock, but you must buy it when it’s declining, with the understanding it will rise again. 

4. “A common stock investor is one who regards his common stock holdings as a proprietary interest in various businesses, not as a series of quotations in a newspaper.” 

• Source: Benjamin Graham

Takeaway: A Stock Is Just a Stock

Graham is saying here that he wants stock investors to think long-term and not react to the daily market noise. Instead, he would like the “common stock investor,” as he called them, to focus on the actual value of a business they are invested in. The more you understand a company’s underlying fundamentals, the more likely you are to make better investment decisions. 

5. “The best way to measure your investing success is not by whether you’re beating the market but by whether you’ve put in place a financial plan and a behavioral discipline that are likely to get you where you want to go.” 

• Source: Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor 

Takeaway: Focus On Yourself

In the case of this quote, it stands to reason Graham would want every investor to focus on their financial journey and not worry about market benchmarks. Graham believed that one of the best ways to achieve financial success would have included having a solid plan and the discipline to stick by that time, even through market volatility, to achieve your financial goals. 

6. “The intelligent investor gets interested in big growth stocks not when they are at their most popular, but when something goes wrong.” 

• Source: Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor 

Takeaway: Don’t Buy At the High

Let this Benjamin Graham quote be a subtle reminder that you must be careful not to buy at the high stock price. You don’t want to chase big stocks when they are commanding higher-than-usual valuations. Instead, you want to buy these stocks when a market correction happens when you might be able to purchase the stock at a reasonable price and then enjoy the winnings when it goes back up. 

7. “The intelligent investor realizes that stocks become more risky, not less as their prices rise, and less risky, not more, as their prices fall. The intelligent investor dreads a bull market, since it makes stocks more costly to buy. And conversely, you should welcome a bear market, since it puts stocks on sale.” 

• Source: Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor 

Takeaway: Welcome The Bear Market

This is a tough quote for any 50-year-old to swallow as early retirement might be on their mind, and they hope to earn as much as possible as quickly as possible. However, it also pays to have patience and buy when stock prices fall, creating an opportunity to buy good companies at lower valuations. In contrast, when you buy in a bull market, you buy at inflated pricing. 

8. “Invest only if you would be comfortable owning a stock even if you had no way of knowing its daily share price.” 

• Source: Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor 

Takeaway: Know The Business

Graham hopes you take away from this quote that you are investing in a company because you believe it’s a solid business with a strong future, not because of its market upswings. Graham strongly believed that an intelligent investor should choose a stock based on company fundamentals like growth and profitability, not short-term market volatility. 

9. “Knowledge is only one ingredient on arriving at a stock’s proper price. The other ingredient, fully as important as information is sound judgment.” 

• Source: Benjamin Graham

Takeaway: Maintain Sound Judgment

As with most of Graham’s teachings, he believed that sound judgment would be one of the biggest keys to intelligent investing. Anyone who could make a rational decision about investing would be in a better position to make money, regardless of economic conditions, because they were not affected by the emotions and reactions of other investors who might have different opinions. 

10. “Most people sell stocks at low prices not because they have to but because they are scared.” 

• Source: Benjamin Graham

Takeaway: Don’t Act Impulsively

This is one of the most common pitfalls for investors, including those 50 years of age. There is a strong likelihood that someone will sell stock during a market downtown and potentially take a loss because they are scared. Graham knows these individuals reacted to short-term volatility and acted on emotion, not intelligence, as he would suggest. Instead, he urges all investors to remain calm and rational during market instability to avoid missing out on long-term growth.

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