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Who really said it

In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine

Written by Warren Buffett b. 1930 · American investor · chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
Confirmed in Buffett’s own published letter — though he credited Ben Graham, who never wrote it. In copyright

Buffett published the line in his Berkshire Hathaway chairman’s letter for 1993, dated 1 March 1994 — but introduced it with “As Ben Graham said,” and the sentence appears in none of Graham’s books or lecture transcripts. Quote Investigator traces the combined short-run/long-run form back to Buffett himself in 1973–74 and leans toward crediting him, while cautioning that the evidence is incomplete.

Last verified 4 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine” In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine. — Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman's letter for 1993, dated 1 March 1994. Buffett credited Benjamin Graham, but the line is not found in Graham's writings.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. / Warren E. Buffett). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Warren Buffett — American investor · chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Theme: "In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Work
Chairman’s Letter, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 1993 Annual Report
Author
Warren E. Buffett, Chairman of the Board
Dated
1 March 1994
Credited in the text to
Benjamin Graham — a credit no Graham publication supports

As Ben Graham said: “In the short-run, the market is a voting machine — reflecting a voter-registration test that requires only money, not intelligence or emotional stability — but in the long-run, the market is a weighing machine.”

The popular one-liner is a trimmed form of this sentence: the middle clause drops away and “the market is” becomes “it is” — close to the contracted “it’s” phrasing Buffett used in Forbes on 1 November 1974, which Quote Investigator quotes.

Chairman’s letter
Read the 1993 letter at berkshirehathaway.com
Quote Investigator: the full chronology, 1934 to 2005

How the line travelled

  • 1934 — Graham and Dodd’s Security Analysis supplies only half the metaphor. Quote Investigator ↗ records the book saying the market is not a weighing machine but a voting machine, with no long-run reversal anywhere in it.
  • 1973–1974 — the two halves are joined, by Buffett. A profile in Lincoln, Nebraska’s Sunday Journal and Star of 18 March 1973 paraphrases him on the market acting short-run like a voting machine and long-run more like a weighing machine, and a Forbes interview of 1 November 1974 quotes him saying it directly. In neither does he credit Graham, per Quote Investigator ↗.
  • 1 March 1994 — Buffett writes the canonical sentence into his chairman’s letter for 1993 ↗, prefacing it “As Ben Graham said” — the moment the line becomes Graham’s in the public mind.
  • Since — Wikiquote ↗ files the saying under Disputed on its Graham page, noting it is not found in any of Graham’s publications or lecture transcripts.
In copyright

The sentence as quoted comes from Buffett’s chairman’s letter for 1993, dated 1 March 1994 — far too recent to be public domain in the United States. Berkshire’s own letters archive ↗ states that all shareholder letters include copyrighted material reproduced with permission, so short quotation with attribution is the safe use.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

The credit runs backwards

Nearly every appearance of this line hands it to Benjamin Graham — and the man who started that habit is Warren Buffett, quoting his old teacher from memory. Graham supplied the voting machine. The long-run weighing machine appears to be Buffett’s own.

Benjamin Graham Disputed

Wikiquote ↗ lists both the long form and the short form of this line in its Disputed section for Graham, noting that the statement is not found in any of Graham’s publications or lecture transcripts.

“Security Analysis” (1934) Wrong book

The Graham and Dodd volume is the usual footnote, but Quote Investigator ↗ shows that what the book actually contains is the opposite half of the idea — the market is not a weighing machine, it is a voting machine — with no short-run/long-run contrast in it at all.

John C. Bogle, “The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism” (2005) Circular

Bogle ascribed the saying to Graham but, as Quote Investigator ↗ records, footnoted only Buffett’s letter — so the documentary trail for Graham loops straight back to Buffett and stops.

The wording is Buffett’s, published under his own name in the letter dated 1 March 1994; the underlying voting-machine image is Graham and Dodd’s from 1934. Quote Investigator ↗ weighs both candidates and leans toward crediting Buffett, while cautioning that the evidence is incomplete.

Context

Why it stuck

A voting machine counts opinions. A weighing machine measures what a thing actually is. Graham and Dodd reached for the first image in 1934 to explain why prices wobble — the market tallies enthusiasm, not worth. What their book never did was promise the wobble ends.

That promise is the entire reason the saying survives. Adding “but in the long run” turns a warning about crowds into a consolation for anyone holding through a drawdown, which is why the line gets quoted hardest when markets fall. It is also, not coincidentally, the sentence a professional investor most needs his shareholders to believe — and the man who wrote it down was writing to his shareholders.

Graham gave the market a voting machine. Buffett gave it a scale.

What Graham actually wrote in 1934

Per Quote Investigator ↗, Security Analysis carries two versions of the image, both making one point: the market is not a weighing machine, it is a voting machine, on which countless individuals register choices that are partly reason and partly emotion. The contrast Graham and Dodd are drawing is between price and true value at a given moment — not between the short run and the long run.

Buffett’s own account, in the Forbes interview of 1 November 1974 that Quote Investigator quotes, is that he once asked Graham at Graham-Newman why the market ever gets around to correcting itself, and Graham shrugged and replied that it always eventually does. The weighing-machine half of the saying may well be Buffett’s compression of that shrug.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Truth Time Wisdom

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: the full chronologyquoteinvestigator.com

The authoritative investigation, tracing the saying from Security Analysis (1934) through Buffett in 1973–74 to Bogle in 2005. Concludes it leans toward crediting Buffett.
Buffett’s chairman’s letter for 1993berkshirehathaway.com

The primary source. Dated 1 March 1994 and signed Warren E. Buffett; contains the sentence, prefaced “As Ben Graham said.”
Wikiquote: Benjamin Grahamen.wikiquote.org

Lists both the long and short forms of the line in its Disputed section, noting it is not found in any of Graham’s publications or lecture transcripts.
Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letters archiveberkshirehathaway.com

The complete run of letters, and the rights notice: all shareholder letters include copyrighted material reproduced with permission.
Wikipedia: Warren Buffetten.wikipedia.org

Biography confirming his birth on 30 August 1930, his Columbia studies under Graham, and his years at Graham-Newman Corp., 1954–1956.
Wikipedia: Security Analysis (book)en.wikipedia.org

Publication record for the Graham and Dodd book of 1934 — the volume this saying is most often, and wrongly, footnoted to.

The author

About Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett

Born 30 August 1930 · American investor · chairman of Berkshire Hathaway

Warren Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on 30 August 1930. He enrolled at Columbia Business School specifically because Benjamin Graham taught there, took a Master of Science in economics in 1951, and then worked as a securities analyst at Graham’s own firm, Graham-Newman Corp., from 1954 to 1956. He has run Berkshire Hathaway ever since, and his annual chairman’s letters — where this line appears — are how much of Graham’s thinking reached a mass audience, this sentence very much included.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Cite this page

Warren E. Buffett, “Chairman’s Letter,” Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 1993 Annual Report, dated 1 March 1994, berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1993.html. Per Quote Investigator, the earliest documented appearance of the combined short-run/long-run form is a profile of Buffett in the Sunday Journal and Star (Lincoln, Nebraska), 18 March 1973.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine’?” Last verified 4 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/in-the-short-run-the-market-is-a-voting-machine-but-in-the/

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