Top 120 Seth Klarman Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “One must understand the importance of an endless drive to get information and seek value.”

— Seth Klarman

52. “In investing it is never wrong to change your mind. It is only wrong to change your mind and do nothing about it.”

— Seth Klarman

53. “Ultimately, nothing should be more important to investors than the ability to sleep soundly at night.”

— Seth Klarman

54. “The near absence of bargains works as a reverse indicator for us. When we find there is little worth buying, there is probably much worth selling.”

— Seth Klarman

55. “Do not suffer interim losses, relish and appreciate them.”

— Seth Klarman

56. “It’s incredibly important to note that when you don’t allow failure, you get more failure.”

— Seth Klarman

57. “We are big fans of fear, and in investing it is clearly better to be scared than sorry.”

— Seth Klarman

58. “There’s no such thing as a value company. Price is all that matters. At some price, an asset is a buy, at another it’s a hold, and at another it’s a sell.”

— Seth Klarman

59. “Complexity – limits competition.”

— Seth Klarman

60. “The real secret to investing is that there is no secret to investing.”

— Seth Klarman

61. “The prevailing view has been that the market will earn a high rate of return if the holding period is long enough, but entry point is what really matters.”

— Seth Klarman

62. “In contrast to the speculators preoccupation with rapid gain, value investors demonstrate their risk aversion by striving to avoid loss.”

— Seth Klarman

63. “Costs and liabilities are rarely overstated.”

— Seth Klarman

64. “As Graham, Dodd and Buffett have all said, you should always remember that you don’t have to swing at every pitch. You can wait for opportunities that fit your criteria and if you don’t find them, patiently wait. Deciding not to act is still a decision.”

— Seth Klarman

65. “When you buy bargains and they become better bargains, it is easy to start to question yourself, which can impair your judgement. Real or imagined concerns about client redemptions, employee defections can greatly influence behavior away from rational.”

— Seth Klarman

66. “By investing at a discount, Benjamin Graham knew that he was unlikely to experience losses.”

— Seth Klarman

67. “Most investors are primarily oriented toward return, how much they can make and pay little attention to risk, how much they can lose.”

— Seth Klarman

68. “A simple rule applies: if you don’t quickly comprehend what a company is doing, then management probably doesn’t either.”

— Seth Klarman

69. “Analysts recommendations may not produce good results. In part this is due to the pressure placed on these analysts to recommend frequently rather than wisely.”

— Seth Klarman

70. “All an investor can do is follow a consistently disciplined and rigorous approach; over time the returns will come.”

— Seth Klarman

71. “A value strategy is of little use to the impatient investor since it usually takes time to pay off.”

— Seth Klarman

72. “Having clients with a long-term orientation is crucial. Nothing else is as important to the success of an investment firm.”

— Seth Klarman

73. “It is always easiest to run with the herd; at times, it can take a deep reservoir of courage and conviction to stand apart from it. Yet distancing yourself from the crowd is an essential component of long-term investment success.”

— Seth Klarman

74. “Successful investors must temper the arrogance of taking a stand with a large dose of humility, accepting that despite their efforts and care, they may in fact be wrong.”

— Seth Klarman

75. “The cost of performing well in bad times can be relative underperformance in good times.”

— Seth Klarman

76. “Bad things happen, but really bad things do not. Do buy the dips, especially the lowest quality securities when they come under pressure, because declines will quickly be reversed.”

— Seth Klarman

77. “Avoiding where others go wrong is an important step in achieving investment success. In fact, it almost assures it.”

— Seth Klarman

78. “It turns out that value investing is something that is in your blood. There are people who just don’t have the patience and discipline to do it, and there are people who do. So it leads me to think it’s genetic.”

— Seth Klarman

79. “Things that have never happened before are bound to occur with some regularity. You must always be prepared for the unexpected, including sudden, sharp downward swings in markets and the economy. Whatever adverse scenario you can contemplate, reality can be far worse.”

— Seth Klarman

80. “I know of no long-time practitioner who regrets adhering to a value philosophy; few investors who embrace the fundamental principles ever abandon this investment approach for another.”

— Seth Klarman

81. “Investment success cannot be captured in a mathematical equation or a computer program.”

— Seth Klarman

82. “Macro worries are like sports talk radio. Everyone has a good opinion which probably means that none of them are good.”

— Seth Klarman

83. “When a government official says a problem has been “contained,” pay no attention.”

— Seth Klarman

84. “The best protection against risk is knowing what you are doing.”

— Seth Klarman

85. “As Buffett has often observed, value investing is not a concept that can be learned and gradually applied over time. It is either absorbed and adopted at once, or it is never truly learned.”

— Seth Klarman

86. “Most institutional investors feel compelled to swing at almost every pitch and forgo batting selectivity for frequency.”

— Seth Klarman

87. “Investors need to pick their poison: Either make more money when times are good and have a really ugly year every so often, or protect on the downside and don’t be at the party so long when things are good.”

— Seth Klarman

88. “When all feels calm and prices surge, the markets may feel safe; but, in fact, they are dangerous because few investors are focusing on risk.”

— Seth Klarman

89. “You probably would not choose to dine at a restaurant whose chef always ate elsewhere. I do eat my own cooking, and I don’t “dine out” when it comes to investing.”

— Seth Klarman

90. “In a rising market, everyone makes money and a value philosophy is unnecessary. But because there is no certain way to predict what the market will do, one must follow a value philosophy at all times.”

— Seth Klarman

91. “Flexible approach – will look at ALL asset classes.”

— Seth Klarman

92. “Be indifferent if you lose your short term clients, remember they are your own worst enemy.”

— Seth Klarman

93. “When a stock is selling at a discount to liquidation value per share, a near rock-bottom appraisal, it is frequently an attractive investment.”

— Seth Klarman

94. “Selling, in particular, can be a challenge; many investors are tempted to become more optimistic when a security is performing well. This temptation must be resisted; tax considerations aside, when a security reaches full valuation, there is no longer a reason to own it.”

— Seth Klarman

95. “Ratings agencies are highly conflicted, unimaginative dupes. They are blissfully unaware of adverse selection and moral hazard. Investors should never trust them.”

— Seth Klarman

96. “If you can remember that stocks aren’t pieces of paper that gyrate all the time – they are fractional interests in businesses – it all makes sense.”

— Seth Klarman

97. “Literally draw a detailed map-like an organization chart-of interlocking ownership and affiliates, many of which were also publicly traded. So, identifying one stock led him to a dozen other potential investments. To tirelessly pull threads is the lesson that I learned from Mike Price.”

— Seth Klarman

98. “Benjamin Graham wrote, “Those with enterprise haven’t the money, and those with money haven’t the enterprise, to buy stocks when they are cheap.””

— Seth Klarman

99. “We buy expecting to hold a bond to maturity and a stock forever.”

— Seth Klarman

100. “The trick of successful investors is to sell when they want to, not when they have to.”

— Seth Klarman