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George Soros

George Soros Quotes

Business magnate

George Soros, born on August 12, 1930, is a renowned business magnate and philanthropist. He has significant influence in the global financial markets and is known for his unique investment strategies and philosophy. In the 1970s, Soros founded the Quantum Fund, which achieved substantial wealth growth over the following decades. Apart from his success in business, Soros is committed to promoting global democracy and open societies, supporting various educational and charitable projects through the Soros Foundation.

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Famous George Soros Quotes

“Any central bank should only be in charge of liquidity. Solvency is a matter for the treasury.”

Should Matter Treasury Central Banks Liquidity

Author:George Soros

“These public-private partnerships are very, very dangerous. The most rotten part of the financial system in the US consisted of the government sponsored entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They really kicked off this crisis. The state should set the rules and enforce them - but not become involved as a market player.”

Should States Government Player Dangerous Involved Crisis Financial Partnership Entity Rotten Financial System Private Parts

Author:George Soros

“There is a well-established conviction that the central banks always do what is necessary to keep the system going and then afterwards you then take care of the legal aspects. In a crisis, you simply do not have time to think about such concerns for too long.”

Thinking Wells Long Care Concern Aspect Crisis Conviction Take Care Time To Think Central Banks

Author:George Soros

“Hedge funds are a very efficient way of managing money. But there are clearly some risks. Hedge funds use credit and credit is a source of instability. Transactions involving credit should be regulated.”

Way Should Use Risk Source Credit Fund Efficient Involving Transactions Instability Hedge Fund

Author:George Soros

“There is very little difference between speculation and investment. The only difference is basically that investments are successful speculations because if you successfully anticipate the future you make a speculative profit.”

Ifs Littles Differences Successful Investment Profit Speculation Anticipate

Book:The Tragedy of the European Union: Disintegration or Revival?

Source: The Tragedy of the European Union: Disintegration or Revival?

“Sometimes time actually works against you if you refuse to face the relevant issues and explain to the public what is at stake.”

Ifs Sometimes Faces Issues Refuse Stakes Relevant

Author:George Soros

“Giving government aid to a bank basically transforms it into a utility. The huge salaries in this sector are only a symptom of a more profound misalignment. The profitability of the finance industry has been excessive. [...] That was absurd.”

Giving Has Beens Government Huge Industry Profound Aids Absurd Finance Symptoms Salary Utility Profitability Government Aid

Author:George Soros

“What works for Germany can't work for the rest of Europe: No country can run a chronic surplus without others running deficits.”

Country Running Europe Germany Deficit Surplus

Author:George Soros

“China could easily emerge as the great winner if the Chinese leaders handle the situation well. On the other hand, they could also turn out to be the biggest losers if they handle it poorly. If the management turns out be wrong, this could lead to a political crisis in China.”

Ifs Wells Hands Political Turns Situation Leader Management Crisis China Handle Chinese Winner Loser Biggest Loser

Author:George Soros

“Of course, speculation will always make a crisis worse. If there is a weak point, it will expose it.”

Ifs Courses Weak Crisis Speculation Weak Points

Author:George Soros

“No individual anonymous participant can influence the prices and therefore you really can speculate in the market without paying attention to morality. That's one of the positive features of markets. That's why they function.”

Individual Attention Influence Morality Function Pay Attention Features Participants

Author:George Soros

“My original intention was to spend the money in my lifetime.”

Originals Intention Lifetime

Author:George Soros

“I call government that works the best for people open society, which is basically just another more general term for a democracy that is - you call it maybe a liberal democracy. It's not only majority rule but also respect for minorities and minority opinions and the rule of law. So it's really a sort of institutional democracy.”

People Government Law Term Opinion Democracy Majority Minorities Rule Of Law Majority Rule Liberal Democracy

Author:George Soros

“Democracy, by its very nature, can't be imposed on people. Democracy has to be the people deciding for themselves.”

People Democracy Democracies Have

Author:George Soros

“We in the United States are very often - since we are a democracy and we have national interests, we've often made the mistake that a democracy has to adopt America's interests, and that is a contradiction because a democracy basically is people deciding what their interests are.”

People Made States America Interest United Mistake United States Democracy Contradiction Democracies Have National Interests

Author:George Soros

“Advocating democracy has, by other people, often been taken as a form of imperialism, and not without some justification. So the important thing in a democracy is that it doesn't necessarily have to agree with what America's interests are, and it doesn't necessarily have to be serving American interests.”

People Important America Form Interest Democracy Taken Agree Important Things Serving Justification Imperialism Democracies Have Advocating

Author:George Soros

“I think it is natural that every country has to take care of its interests, but there are some interests that are common to all countries. There are some human interests, or we need also international cooperation. We've sometimes confused it with dictation.”

Thinking Needs Humans Country Sometimes Care Interest Natural Common International Take Care Confused Cooperation Dictation International Cooperation

Author:George Soros

“Fundamental analysis seeks to establish how underlying values are reflected in stock prices, whereas the theory of reflexivity shows how stock prices can influence underlying values”

Shows Values Influence Theory Fundamentals Analysis Stock Price

Book:The Alchemy of Finance

Source: The Alchemy of Finance

“To be successful, you need leisure. You need time hanging heavily on your hands.”

Needs Hands Successful Being Successful Leisure Time Of Need

Author:George Soros

“The global crisis is caused by pathologies inherent in the global financial system itself.”

Crisis Financial Inherent Pathology Financial System

Author:George Soros

“I fancied myself as some kind of god or an economic reformer like Keynes”

Kind Economic Reformers Keynes

Book:The Alchemy of Finance

Source: The Alchemy of Finance

“The scope for improvement is infinite, precisely because perfection is unattainable.”

Perfection Infinite Improvement Scope Unattainable

Book:Open Society Reforming Global Capitalism Reconsidered

Source: Open Society Reforming Global Capitalism Reconsidered

“The generally accepted theory is that financial markets tend towards equilibrium, and...discount the future correctly. I operate using a different theory, according to which financial markets cannot possibly discount the future correctly because the do not merely discount the future; they help to shape it.”

Different Helping Theory Shapes Financial Accepted Equilibrium Discounts Financial Markets

Author:George Soros

“The prevailing wisdom is that markets are always right. I take the opposite position. I assume that markets are always wrong.”

Position Opposites Assuming Prevailing Always Wrong

Book:Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve

Source: Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve

“As an anonymous participant in financial markets, I never had to weigh the social consequences of my actions ... I felt justified in ignoring them on the grounds that I was playing by the rules.”

Action Social Felt Consequence Financial Justified Participants Financial Markets

Book:Open Society Reforming Global Capitalism Reconsidered

Source: Open Society Reforming Global Capitalism Reconsidered

“Changeless society is characterized by the absense of alternatives.”

Author:George Soros

“Political debate is more interested in manipulating the truth, than finding the truth.”

Political Findings Debate Political Debates Finding Out The Truth

Author:George Soros

“In politics, manipulating reality can take presidence over finding reality.”

Reality Findings

Author:George Soros

“The financial markets play an active role in determining what's going to happen, how the economy is going to function.”

Play Happens Roles Economy Function Financial Active Financial Markets

Author:George Soros

“Market prices are always wrong.”

Book:The Alchemy of Finance: Reading the Mind of the Market

Source: The Alchemy of Finance: Reading the Mind of the Market

“There is always a divergence between our perception and what actually exists.”

Perception Divergence

Author:George Soros

“I used to be opposed to the idea of social entrepreneurship. I said, you know, let business be business, and philanthropy be philanthropy. Keep the two separate, don't mix it up, and this is what I did, and I did that rather successfully, but I now recognize that actually you do need to mix it up and I think there is room for social entrepreneurship.”

Thinking Needs Said Two Ideas Used Social Rooms Used To Be Entrepreneurship Philanthropy Social Entrepreneurship

Author:George Soros

“I don't panic. The same thing applies to me as to everybody else, so I'm given to euphoria and despair. And I would say that I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes.”

Given Mistake Despair Panic Survived Recognizing My Mistakes Euphoria

Author:George Soros

“In certain circumstances, financial markets can affect the so-called fundamentals which they are supposed to reflect. When that happens, markets enter into a state of dynamic disequilibrium and behave quite differently from what would be considered normal by the theory of efficient markets. Such boom/bust sequences do not arise very often, but when they do, they can be very disruptive, exactly because they affect the fundamentals of the economy.”

States Happens Would Be Certain Economy Theory Circumstances Normal Fundamentals Financial Arise Behave Efficient Sequence Disruptive Financial Markets Efficient Markets Disequilibrium

Author:George Soros

“The assumption of perfect knowledge is very far from reality ... a lot of the evil in the world is actually not intentional.”

World Reality Evil Perfect Assumption

Author:George Soros

“We are trying to make the world a better place, but that is not necessarily what we accomplish. Many of the problems which preoccupy us are basically insoluble.”

World Trying Problem Accomplish Better Place

Author:George Soros

“I am not a Zionist, nor am I am a practicing Jew, but I have a great deal of sympathy for my fellow Jews and a deep concern for the survival of Israel.”

Deals Survival Concern Fellows Jew Israel Zionist

Author:George Soros

“As a society we can't live without moral considerations. We do have to protect the public good. And markets are not designed to do that, so we need a political process.”

Needs Political Process Moral Protect Consideration Public Good

Author:George Soros

“If the choice is between cooking alive and wasting money unnecessarily I would rather waste some money, because long before we cook we are going to kill each other if we don't deal with climate change.”

Ifs Long Choices Deals Alive Waste Cooking Climate Climate Change Cooks Wasting Money

Author:George Soros

“Making an investment decision is like formulating a scientific hypothesis and submitting it to a practical test.”

Decision Tests Investment Practicals Hypothesis

Book:The Alchemy of Finance: Reading the Mind of the Market

Source: The Alchemy of Finance: Reading the Mind of the Market

“Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.”

Source: Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve

“Now that I have called you on your false accusation, you are using additional smear tactics.”

Accused Tactics Fake People Accusation Accusers False Accusation Falsely Accused Smear Campaigns

Author:George Soros

“I chose America as my home because I value freedom and democracy, civil liberties and an open society.”

Home America Values Freedom Liberty Democracy Investing Civil Liberties

Author:George Soros

“A full and fair discussion is essential to democracy.”

Political Democracy Essentials Fairs Investing Discussion

Author:George Soros

“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.”

Cost Dollars Investing Billions Marijuana Providing Enforcement Revenue Taxpayers Incarceration

Author:George Soros

“The criminalization of marijuana did not prevent marijuana from becoming the most widely used illegal substance in the United States and many other countries. But it did result in extensive costs and negative consequences.”

Country States Used United Results United States Becoming Cost Consequence Negative Substance Illegal Marijuana Other Countries Negative Consequences

Author:George Soros

“We must recognize that as the dominant power in the world we have a special responsibility. In addition to protecting our national interests, we must take the leadership in protecting the common interests of humanity.”

World Humanity Interest Leadership Common Responsibility Economy Special Dominant National Interests Common Interests

Book:Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror

Source: Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror

“Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux and money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.”

Made States Investing Financial Obvious Uncertainty Unexpected Traders Flux Betting

Author:George Soros

“The worse a situation becomes the less it takes to turn it around, the bigger the upside.”

Turns Situation Bigger

Author:George Soros

“Stock market bubbles don't grow out of thin air. They have a solid basis in reality, but reality as distorted by a misconception.”

Reality Grows Air Bases Investment Investing Financial Saving Investors Bubbles Savings Misconception Thin Air Successful Investing

Author:George Soros

About the Author

Born: August 12, 1930
Known for: Business magnate
Quotes: 201

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Books & Sources

The Alchemy of Finance: Reading the Mind of the MarketRelated source material

Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the CurveRelated source material

The Alchemy of FinanceRelated source material

Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on TerrorRelated source material

Open Society Reforming Global Capitalism ReconsideredRelated source material

My PhilanthropyRelated source material

Open Society: Reforming Global CapitalismRelated source material

The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on TerrorRelated source material

The Crash of 2008 and What it Means: The New Paradigm for Financial MarketsRelated source material

The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It MeansRelated source material

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