The Wisdom of Peter Lynch

• Although it's easy to forget sometimes, a share is not a lottery ticket... it's part-ownership of a business.

• Don't bottom fish.

•  Everyone has the brainpower to follow the stock market. If you made it through fifth-grade math, you can do it.

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

• I don't go near the money and the money doesn't go near me.

• I think you have to learn that there's a company behind every stock, and that there's only one real reason why stocks go up. Companies go from doing poorly to doing well or small companies grow to large companies.

• I've found that when the market's going down and you buy funds wisely, at some point in the future you will be happy. You won't get there by reading 'Now is the time to buy.'

• If all the economists in the world were laid end to end, it wouldn't be a bad thing.

• Improved turnout will give parliament and government the appearance of being more legitimate.

• It's human nature to keep doing something as long as it's pleasurable and you can succeed at it - which is why the world population continues to double every 40 years.

• Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Suicide is a choice and I think if we work with that with kids, we'll get somewhere.

• The person that turns over the most rocks wins the game. And that's always been my philosophy.

• When stocks are attractive, you buy them. Sure, they can go lower. I've bought stocks at $12 that went to $2, but then they later went to $30. You just don't know when you can find the bottom.

• You get recessions, you have stock market declines. If you don't understand that's going to happen, then you're not ready, you won't do well in the markets.

• There's no shame in losing money on a stock. Everybody does it. What is shameful is to hold on to a stock, or, worse, to buy more of it, when the fundamentals are deteriorating.

• A person infatuated with measurement, who has his head stuck in the sand of the balance sheets, is not likely to succeed.

• In business, competition is never as healthy as total domination.

• Your investor's edge is not something you get from Wall Street experts. It's something you already have. You can outperform the experts if you use your edge by investing in companies or industries you already understand.

• Owning stocks is like having children - don't get involved with more than you can handle.

• If you can't find any companies that you think are attractive, put your money in the bank until you discover some.

• A stock market decline is as routine as a January blizzard in Colorado. If you're prepared, it can't hurt you. A decline is a great opportunity to pick up the bargains left behind by investors who are fleeing the storm in panic.

• There is always something to worry about. Avoid weekend thinking and ignore the latest dire predictions of the newscasters. Sell a stock because the company's fundamentals deteriorate, not because the sky is falling.