Peter Lynch Running Quotations

Go for a business that any idiot can run - because sooner or later, any idiot probably is going to run it.

People were writing off California a couple of years ago, now they have a massive surplus. Canada is running its first surplus in 20 years and Mexico is doing well. Wouldn't you have been shocked if someone told you that the U.S. would have been running a surplus?

It's absolute crap that people need to spend 60 hours a week analyzing companies, ... All you need are a few stocks to make money. If you find one stock a year, that's plenty. When I was running Magellan I had to find one a week but that was because I had billions of dollars. The average person needs only a few good stocks in a lifetime.

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.

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.

Invest in businesses any idiot could run, because someday one will.

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.