Welcome to our collection of George Soros Quotes! George Soros is a renowned investor, philanthropist, and political activist who has made a significant impact on the global economy, international politics, and charitable work. Here, you will find the best of Soros’s quotes on a variety of topics, from finance and investing to human rights and democracy.
George Soros Quotes on Investing
“I called gold the ultimate bubble, which means it may go higher. But it’s certainly not safe and it’s not going to last forever.”
🔘”I would be lying, however, if I claimed that I could always formulate worthwhile hypotheses on the basis of my theoretical framework. Sometimes there were no reflexive processes to be found; sometimes I failed to find them; and, what was the most painful of all, sometimes I got them wrong. One way or another, I often invested without a worthwhile hypothesis and my activities were not very different from a random walk.”
🔘”If I had to sum up my practical skills, I would use one word: survival. And operating a hedge fund utilized my training in survival to the fullest.”
🔘”If investing is entertaining, if you’re having fun, you’re probably not making any money. Good investing is boring.”
🔘”Making an investment decision is like formulating a scientific hypothesis and submitting it to a practical test. The main difference is that the hypothesis that underlies an investment decision is intended to make money and not to establish a universally valid generalization.”
🔘”Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux, and money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.”
🔘”Taking this view, it is possible to see financial markets as a laboratory for testing hypotheses, albeit not strictly scientific ones. The truth is, successful investing is a kind of alchemy.”
🔘”The hardest thing to judge is what level of risk is safe..”
🔘”The trouble with institutional investors is that their performance is usually measured relative to their peer group and not by an absolute yardstick. This makes them trend followers by definition.”
🔘”When interest rates are low we have conditions for asset bubbles to develop, and they are developing at the moment. The ultimate asset bubble is gold.’
🔘”When you sell options, you get paid for assuming risk. That can be a profitable business, but it does not mix well with the risks inherent in a leveraged portfolio.”
George Soros Quotes on Money & Finance
🔘”A global economy is characterized not only by the free movement of goods and services but, more important, by the free movement of ideas and of capital.”
🔘”I contend that financial markets never reflect the underlying reality accurately; they always distort it in some way or another and the distortions find expression in market prices. Those distortions can, occasionally, find ways to affect the fundamentals that market prices are supposed to reflect.”
🔘”In the case of a meltdown, the regulatory authorities may find themselves obliged to step in to preserve the integrity of the system. It is in that light that the authorities have both a right and an obligation to supervise and regulate derivative instruments.”
“Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux, and money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.”
🔘”Markets are designed to allow individuals to look after their private needs and to pursue profit. It’s really a great invention, and I wouldn’t underestimate the value of that. But they’re not designed to take care of social needs.”
🔘”Money values do not simply mirror the state of affairs in the real world; valuation is a positive act that makes an impact on the course of events. Monetary and real phenomena are connected in a reflexive fashion; that is, they influence each other mutually. The reflexive relationship manifests itself most clearly in the use and abuse of credit.”
🔘”Stock market bubbles don’t grow out of thin air. They have a solid basis in reality, but reality is distorted by a misconception.”
🔘”The concept of a general equilibrium has no relevance to the real world (in other words, classical economics is an exercise in futility.”
🔘”The financial markets generally are unpredictable. So that one has to have different scenarios… The idea that you can actually predict what’s going to happen contradicts my way of looking at the market.”
🔘”The generally accepted view is that markets are always right — that is, market prices tend to discount future developments accurately even when it is unclear what those developments are. I start with the opposite view. I believe the market prices are always wrong in the sense that they present a biased view of the future.”
🔘”When money is free, the rational lender will keep on lending until there is no one else to lend to.”
George Soros’ Personal Philosophy
🔘”Economics seeks to be a science. Science is supposed to be objective and it is difficult to be scientific when the subject matter, the participant in the economic process, lacks objectivity.”
🔘”Every bubble consists of a trend that can be observed in the real world and a misconception relating to that trend. The two elements interact with each other in a reflexive manner.”
🔘”I am for maximum supervision and minimum regulation.”
🔘”I was a human being before I became a businessman.”
🔘”I’m only rich because I know when I’m wrong…I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes.”
🔘”If we carry this line of argument to its logical conclusion, the meaning of life consists of the flaws in one’s conceptions and what one does about them. Life can be seen as a fertile fallacy.”
🔘”It is credit that matters, not money in other words, monetarism is a false ideology.”
🔘”Misconceptions play a prominent role in my view of the world.”
🔘”Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes..”
🔘”The only thing that could hurt me is if my success encouraged me to return to my childhood fantasies of omnipotence — but that is not likely to happen as long as I remain engaged in the financial markets, because they constantly remind me of my limitations.”
🔘”We are the most powerful nation on earth. No external power, no terrorist organization can defeat us. But we can defeat ourselves by getting caught in a quagmire.”
George Soros Quotes on America & Government
🔘”A full and fair discussion is essential to democracy.”
🔘”As I discovered, there is a great deal of similarity between a boom-bust process in the financial markets and the rise and fall of the Soviet system.”
🔘”Globalization has rendered the world increasingly interdependent, but international politics is still based on the sovereignty of states.”
🔘”I chose America as my home because I value freedom and democracy, civil liberties, and an open society.”
🔘”If we care about universal principles such as freedom, democracy, and the rule of law, we cannot leave them to the care of market forces; we must establish some other institutions to safeguard them.”
🔘”Most of the poverty and misery in the world is due to bad government, lack of democracy, weak states, internal strife, and so on.”
🔘”Regulating and taxing marijuana would simultaneously save taxpayers billions of dollars in enforcement and incarceration costs while providing many billions of dollars in revenue annually.”
🔘”The main enemy of an open society, I believe, is no longer the Communist but the capitalist threat.”
🔘”The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States. [This idea] happens to coincide with the prevailing opinion in the world. And I think that’s rather shocking for Americans to hear.”
🔘”The world is looking to us for leadership. We have provided it in the past; the main reason why anti-American feelings are so strong in the world today is that we are not providing it in the present.”
🔘”We can speak of the triumph of capitalism in the world, but we cannot yet speak about the triumph of democracy. There is a serious mismatch between the political and the economic conditions that prevail in the world today.”
Soros Quotes on Decision Making
🔘”I very often used to get backaches due to the fact that I was wrong. Whenever you are wrong you have to fight or take flight. When make the decision, the backache goes away.”
🔘”It is much easier to put existing resources to better use than to develop resources where they do not exist.”
🔘”The worse a situation becomes, the less it takes to turn it around, and the bigger the upside.”
🔘”Unfortunately, the more complex the system, the greater the room for error.”
🔘”We at Soros Fund Management] use options and more exotic derivatives sparingly. We try to catch new trends early and – in later stages – we try to catch trend reversals. Therefore, we tend to stabilize rather than destabilize the market. We are not doing this as a public service. It is our style of making money.’
🔘”Whenever there is a conflict between universal principles and self-interest, self-interest is likely to prevail.”
George Soros Quotes About Being God And Government
🔘”Democratic governments are subject to the will of the people.”
🔘”Eventually the gap between reality and its false interpretation becomes unsustainable, and the bubble bursts.”
🔘”I do not accept the rules imposed by others…. And in periods of regime change, the normal rules don’t apply.”
🔘”I fancied myself as some kind of god. If truth be known, I carried some rather potent messianic fantasies with me from childhood, which I felt I had to control, otherwise they might get me in trouble.”
“I’m only rich because I know when I’m wrong.”
🔘”It is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out.”
🔘”It is credit that matters, not money (in other words, monetarism is a false ideology).”
🔘”The people currently in charge have forgotten the first principle of an open society, namely that we may be wrong and that there has to be free discussion.”
🔘”The scope for improvement is infinite, precisely because perfection is unattainable.”
🔘”The world order needs a major overhaul.”
🔘”The worse a situation becomes, the less it takes to turn it around, the bigger the upside.”
🔘”To my mind, there is a solution which has to do with democracy, because democratic governments are subject to the will of the people.”
🔘”To others, being wrong is a source of shame; to me, recognizing my mistakes is a source of pride.”
🔘”We must recognize that as the dominant power in the world we have a special responsibility.”
George Soros Evil Quotes
🔘”A lot of the evil in the world is actually not intentional. A lot of people in the financial system did a lot of damage without intending to.”
🔘”At present, the developed countries condescend to the developing ones.”
🔘”Each state is guided by its interests, not by some nebulous concept of common interest.”
🔘”I commissioned two political experts to advise me about what I could do to oppose the re-election of President Bush.”
🔘”If the United States fails to provide the right kind of leadership our civilization may destroy itself. That is the unpleasant reality that confronts us.”
🔘”Misconceptions play a prominent role in my view of the world.”
🔘”On the abstract level, I have turned the belief in my own fallibility into the cornerstone of an elaborate philosophy.”
🔘”President Bush is endangering our safety, hurting our vital interests, and undermining American values.”
🔘”The concept of a general equilibrium has no relevance to the real world (in other words, classical economics is an exercise in futility).”
🔘”Unfortunately, the more complex the system, the greater the room for error.”
Verdict
George Soros has had a long and illustrious career as an investor and philanthropist. His words of wisdom are a testament to his success, and his quotes can serve as an inspiration to us all. No matter the circumstance, his words are always wise, thought-provoking, and relevant. We can all learn something from George Soros Quotes.