Great Throughts Treasury

"I have had a messianic illusion since childhood."

"I have devoted half my fortune and most of my energies in the last 15 years to promoting the values of democracy and open society all over the world, especially in the former Soviet Empire. After 9/11 I came to feel that those principles need to be defended at home."

"I really want to help people who are hurt. And if I do that, I feel that my money is well-spent,"

"I made two major discoveries in the course of writing: one is a reflexive connection between credit and collateral; the other is a reflexive relationship between regulators and the economies they regulate"

"I think the (Brazilian) government has done most of the things it promised to do on the fiscal front... However, it has mismanaged the process so badly that the currency overshot."

"I think that it will lead to reforms and I am sure that the region will recover because it has tremendous energy,"

"I think he's a man of good intentions. I don't doubt it. But I think he's leading us in the wrong direction."

"I think I lost my touch some time ago. I'm like an aging boxer that should not go into the ring,"

"I think they got the facts wrong. There was no case of insider trading."

"I think you will have to be very, very careful to have the regulations that will protect freedom."

"I think the whole idea of eradicating the drug problem is a false idea, ... You can discourage the use of drugs, you can forbid the use of drugs, you can treat people who are addicted to drugs, but you cannot eradicate drugs. Once you accept this point, you may be able to develop a more rational approach to the problem."

"I want to buy $300 million of bonds, so start by selling $50 million. I want to see what the market feels like first."

"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."

"I wish I could write a book that will be read for as long as our civilization lasts... I would value it much more highly than any business success if I could contribute to an understanding of the world in which we live or, better yet, if I could help to preserve the economic and political system that has allowed me to flourish as a participant."

"I’m only rich because I know when I’m wrong…I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes."

"If investing is entertaining, if you’re having fun, you’re probably not making any money. Good investing is boring."

"If we re-elect Bush, we are endorsing the Bush doctrine. And then we are off to a vicious circle of escalating violence in the world. And I think, you know, terrorism, counter-terrorism, it's a very scary spectacle to me. If we reject him, then we are effectively rejecting the Bush doctrine. Because he was elected on a platform of a more humble foreign policy. Then we can go back to a more humble foreign policy. And treat this episode as an aberration. We have to pay a heavy price. You know, 100 billion dollars a year in Iraq. We can't get out of that. We mustn't get out of it. But still, we can then regain the confidence of the world, and our rightful place as leaders of the world, working to make the world a better place."

"If the terrorists have the sympathy of people, it's much harder to find them. So we need people on our side, and that leads us to be responsible leaders of the world, show some concern with the problems."

"If we reelect President Bush we are endorsing his policies and we shall have to live with the consequences. We are facing a vicious circle of escalating violence with no end in sight. If we reject him at the polls we shall have a better chance to regain the respect and support of the world and break the vicious circle. Our future depends on it."

"If you have the rule of law, then you're going to get investment in factories. You have to assure or give a sense of assurance to investors in direct investments that they will be fairly treated and that their property rights are respected."

"I'm very worried about the supply-demand balance, which is very tight."

"I'm not doing my philanthropic work, out of any kind of guilt, or any need to create good public relations. I'm doing it because I can afford to do it, and I believe in it."

"I'm only rich because I know when I'm wrong."

"It is a bizarre thing because I was the only one who was found guilty when the whole of the French establishment was involved."

"International capital flows must have been at the root of the problem,"

"In my old age I have become somewhat conservative... But we will probably have a more mediocre performance because of the multi-manager structure, because to some extent managers can cancel each other out."

"It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the international financial system itself constituted the main ingredient in the meltdown process."

"It is time to recognize that financial markets are inherently unstable. Imposing market discipline means imposing instability, and how much instability can society take? ... To put it bluntly, the choice confronting us is whether we will regulate global financial markets internationally or leave it to each individual state to protect its interests as best it can. The latter course will surely lead to the breakdown of the gigantic circulatory system, which goes under the name of global capitalism."

"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 under-estimate the value of that, but they're not designed to take care of social needs."

"It is much easier to put existing resources to better use, than to develop resources where they do not exist."

"It sounds like a careful step, not a huge expansion"

"It will require, I think, the release of funds and perhaps even an increased package to bring stability... Everything that could have been done wrong has been done wrong."

"It's more difficult, you know, to bring about positive change than it is to make money. It's much easier to make money, because it's a much easier way to measure success — the bottom line. When it comes to social consequences, they've got all different people acting in different ways, very difficult to even have a proper criterion of success. So, it's a difficult task. Why not use an entrepreneurial, rather than a bureaucratic, approach. As long as people genuinely care for the people they're trying to help, they can actually do a lot of good."

"Just as the process of repealing national alcohol prohibition began with individual states repealing their own prohibition laws, so individual states must now take the initiative with respect to repealing marijuana prohibition laws."

"It’s more difficult, you know, to bring about positive change than it is to make money. It’s much easier to make money, because it’s a much easier way to measure success — the bottom line. When it comes to social consequences, they’ve got all different people acting in different ways, very difficult to even have a proper criterion of success. So, it’s a difficult task. Why not use an entrepreneurial, rather than a bureaucratic, approach. As long as people genuinely care for the people they’re trying to help, they can actually do a lot of good."

"It's a very, very troubling and troublesome development."

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

"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."

"My peculiarity is that I don't have a particular style of investing or, more exactly, I try to change my style to fit the conditions."

"Most of the poverty and misery in the world is due to bad government, lack of democracy, weak states, internal strife, and so on. We do need to intervene, to improve political and economic conditions inside countries that have bad governments, where people are suffering."

"No, because I've got the same courts that found me guilty in the first place."

"My foundations support people in the country who care about an open society. It's their work that I'm supporting. So it's not me doing it. But I can empower them. I can support them, and I can help them."

"My position is that America is great precisely because it is an open society, and an open society recognizes that nobody is the ultimate arbiter — and that we may be wrong at times, even if we are powerful. We must be open to criticism and respect divergent and different views and interests."

"My main concern is with the world order"

"Most of the capital (in Indonesia) is in the hands of limited business groups, which don't feel so secure here. Any slightest risk will cause them take their money to Singapore."

"Misconceptions play a prominent role in my view of the world."

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

"Now look at the ideology of American supremacy. It has a solid foundation in reality; namely, the United States is the dominant power in the world. The current government believes the United States ought to use this dominant position to impose its will on the world. That is the misconception. This approach is not what made America great. America did not arrive at its dominant position by imposing its will on the world."

"On the abstract level, I have turned the belief in my own fallibility into the cornerstone of an elaborate philosophy. On a personal level, I am a very critical person who looks for defects in myself as well as in others. But, being so critical, I am also quite forgiving. I couldn't recognize my mistakes if I couldn't forgive myself. To others, being wrong is a source of shame; to me, recognizing my mistakes is a source of pride. Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition, there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes."

"Once a trend is established it tends to persist and to run its full course."