John C. Bogle Quotes

“Ask yourself: Am I an investor, or am I a speculator? An investor is a person who owns business and holds it forever and enjoys the returns that U.S. businesses, and to some extent global businesses, have earned since the beginning of time. Speculation is betting on price. Speculation has no place in the portfolio or the kit of the typical investor.”

“I believe - deeply and profoundly - that speculation is a loser's game.”

“I would always advise young people to follow their star - not my star. They have to live their own life. If they decide they want to go into the investment business, do it, but make it a better business than it is today.”

“If you have trouble imagining a 20% loss in the stock market, you shouldn't be in stocks.”

“If you're very talented and keep winning, you'll do just fine. It may take a while. But the talent is hard to identify and talent is hard to tell from luck. There's an awful lot of luck in this business. Past performance is not helpful in judging future performance.”

“In Las Vegas we all know that it's the croupiers who win. At the race track, it's those who control the handle who win. State lotteries, does anybody think the participants in the lottery win? No. The state wins.”

“In the long run, investing is not about markets at all. Investing is about enjoying the returns earned by businesses.”

“Income earned by the sweat of your brow should be taxed at the lowest rates, not the highest. Capital gains should be taxed at a higher rate.”

“Index funds eliminate the risks of individual stocks, market sectors, and manager selection. Only stock market risk remains.”

“Investing is not nearly as difficult as it looks. Successful investing involves doing a few things right and avoiding serious mistakes.”

“It's amazing how difficult it is for a man to understand something if he's paid a small fortune not to understand it.”

“It's very difficult for any particular segment of the stock market to sustain superior performance. The watch word for our financial markets is, 'reversion to the mean'. I.e. what goes up must come down, and it's true more often than you can imagine.”

“Learn every day, but especially from the experiences of others. It's cheaper!”

“Managed funds are astonishingly tax-inefficient.”

“Reversion to the mean is the iron rule of the financial markets.”

“Speculation leads you the wrong way. It allows you to put your emotions first, whereas investment gets emotions out of the picture.”

“The business has some problems, substantial problems. You go fix it, you young people. That's what you're there for. Don't believe what the old generation tells you. We don't know a damn thing, including Bogle.”

“The courage to press on regardless - regardless of whether we face calm seas or rough seas, and especially when the market storms howl around us - is the quintessential attribute of the successful investor.”

“The general systems of money management today require people to pretend to do something they can't do and like something they don't. It's a funny business because on a net basis, the whole investment management business together gives no value added to all buyers combined. That's the way it has to work. Mutual funds charge two percent per year and then brokers switch people between funds, costing another three to four percentage points. The poor guy in the general public is getting a terrible product from the professionals.”

“The investor is often his own worst enemy.”

“The mistakes we make as investors is when the market's going up, we think it's going to go up forever. When the market goes down, we think it's going to go down forever. Neither of those things actually happen. Doesn't do anything forever. It's by the moment.”

“The principal role of the mutual fund is to serve its investors.”

“Time is your friend; impulse is your enemy.”

“You know the rule of 72, divide the number into 72, any number you want, and that's how long it will take your money to double.”

“Your success in investing will depend in part on your character and guts, and in part on your ability to realize at the height of ebullience and the depth of despair alike that this too shall pass.”

“Rely on the ordinary virtues that intelligent, balanced human beings have relied on for centuries: common sense, thrift, realistic expectations, patience, and perseverance.”

“The historical data support one conclusion with unusual force: To invest with success, you must be a long-term investor.”

“The idea that a bell rings to signal when investors should get into or out of the market is simply not credible. After nearly 50 years in this business, I do not know of anybody who has done it successfully and consistently. I don't even know anybody who knows anybody who has done it successfully and consistently.”

“The mutual fund industry has been built, in a sense, on witchcraft.”

“I will create value for society, rather than extract it.”