Skip to content

Quotes from The Four Pillars of Investing — William J. Bernstein

born 1948 United States

← All quotes by William J. Bernstein

30 quotes

Investing is not a destination. It is an ongoing journey through its four continents - theory, history, psychology and business.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

The advent of modern communication technology has simply facilitated the rapid dissemination of increasingly trivial information.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

Human beings are not very good at taking losses or admitting failure.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

In finance as in life, there is often a huge chasm between what is expected and what actually transpires.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

The worst possible time to invest is when the skies are the clearest.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

We tend to think of technological progress as an ever accelerating affair, but it just isn't so.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

The wealthy are different than you and I: they have many more ways of having their wealth stripped away.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

When the barbarians are at the gates, interest rates rise and bond prices fall precipitously.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

If markets were truly efficient, then you shouldn't be able to make any money rebalancing.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

" when a famous investor publishes a newsletter, it's a sure tip-off that his techniques have stopped working."

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

Owning a portfolio of value stocks is the equivalent of wearing a Nehru jacket over a pair of bell bottom trousers.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

In fact, using entirely reasonable assumptions, you can make the Dow's discounted market value almost anything you want it to be.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

Investment planning and execution are two completely different animals.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

The Gordon Equation is as close as being a physical law, like gravitation or planetary motion, as we will ever encounter in finance.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

The real reason that physicians are mediocre investors is that it never occurs to them that finance is a science, just like medicine.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

It is one thing to coolly design a portfolio strategy on a sheet of paper or computer monitor, and quite another to actually deploy it.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

Ninety-nine percent of what you read about investing in magazines and newspapers, and 100% of what you hear on television is worse than useless.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

Most great financial innovators come from humble circumstances - nothing arouses fascination with financial assets quite like their absence.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

The rub here is that buying when prices are low is always a very scary proposition. The low prices that produce high future returns are not possible without catastrophe and risk.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

The real reason that physicians are rotten investors is that it never occurs to them that finance is a science, just like medicine.

The Four Pillars of Investing (2002)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: William J. Bernstein (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.