"Most of the time common stocks are subject to irrational and excessive price fluctuations in both directions as the consequence of the ingrained tendency of most people to speculate or gamble... to give way to hope, fear and greed."
"It's nonsensical to derive a price/earnings ratio by dividing the known current price by unknown future earnings."
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Source: Storage and Stability. Book by Benjamin Graham. Part I, Chapter II, Government and Surplus Stocks, p. 28, 1937.
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