Several years ago Ben Graham, then almost eighty, expressed to a friend the thought that he hoped every day to do “something foolish, something creative and something generous.” The inclusion of that first whimsical goal reflected his knack for packaging ideas in a form that avoided any overtones of sermonizing or self-importance. Although his ideas were powerful, their delivery was unfailingly gentle.

多年前，本·格雷厄姆将近八十岁时，向一位朋友表达了这样一个想法：他希望每一天都能做一些“愚蠢的事，创造性的事和慷慨的事。” 那个首要的异想天开的目标反映了他包装想法的能力，形式上避免了任何说教或自负的语气。尽管他的想法很有力量，但他传达的方式总是异常温和。

Readers of this magazine need no elaboration of his achievements as measured by the standard of creativity. It is rare that the founder of a discipline does not find his work eclipsed in rather short order by successors. But over forty years after publication of the book that brought structure and logic to a disorderly and confused activity, it is difficult to think of possible candidates for even the runner-up position in the field of security analysis. In an area where much looks foolish within weeks or months after publication, Ben’s principles have remained sound—their value often enhanced and better understood in the wake of financial storms that demolished flimsier intellectual structures. His counsel of soundness brought unfailing rewards to his followers—even to those with natural abilities inferior to more gifted practitioners who stumbled while following counsels of brilliance or fashion.

《证券分析》一书发表四十多年后，它为一个混乱无序的领域带来了结构和逻辑，很难想象在证刀分析领域里，即使是亚军的位置也有可能的候选人。在一个很多看起来在出版几周或几个月后就显得愚蠢的领域，本的原则仍然是稳固的——它们的价值在金融风暴之后经常被增强和更好地理解，金融风暴摧毁了更脆弱的智力结构。他关于稳健的忠告给他的追随者们带来了持续的回报——即使是那些天生能力不如更有天赋的从业者，他们在追随辉煌或时尚的忠告时也会跌跌撞撞。

A remarkable aspect of Ben’s dominance of his professional field was that he achieved it without that narrowness of mental activity that concentrates all effort on a single end. It was, rather, the incidental by-product of an intellect whose breadth almost exceeded definition. Certainly I have never met anyone with a mind of similar scope. Virtually total recall, unending fascination with new knowledge, and an ability to recast it in a form applicable to seemingly unrelated problems made exposure to his thinking in any field a delight.

宾的专业领域的杰出之处在于，他在没有将所有的精力集中在单一目标上的那种心智活动狭隘性的情况下实现了这一点。相反，这更像是一个智力的附带副产品，其广度几乎超出了定义。当然，我从未遇到过任何具有类似范围的头脑。几乎完全的回忆能力，对新知识的无尽迷恋，以及将其重新构思成适用于看似无关问题的形式的能力，使得在任何领域接触他的思想都成为一种乐趣。

But his third imperative—generosity—was where he succeeded beyond all others. I knew Ben as my teacher, my employer, and my friend. In each relationship—just as with all his students, employees, and friends—there was an absolutely open-ended, no-scores-kept generosity of ideas, time, and spirit. If clarity of thinking was required, there was no better place to go. And if encouragement or counsel was needed, Ben was there. Walter Lippmann spoke of men who plant trees that other men will sit under. Ben Graham was such a man. Reprinted from the Financial Analysts Journal, November/December 1976.

但他的第三个要求——慷慨——是他超越所有人的地方。我认识本，作为我的老师，我的雇主，和我的朋友。在每一种关系中——就像对所有他的学生、雇员和朋友一样——有一种绝对开放的、不计分数的思想、时间和精神的慷慨。如果需要清晰的思考，没有比这更好的地方了。如果需要鼓励或建议，本就在那里。沃尔特·李普曼谈到有些人种树让其他人坐在下面。本·格雷厄姆就是这样的人。转载自《金融分析师杂志》，1976年11月/12月。