George Soros quotes are generally
quotations that deal with freedom, democracy, human rights,
economics, education and public health, because those are the
main causes that the ultra-wealthy Hungarian-American investor,
author and philanthropist George Soros (born 1930) is passionate
about.
As a young boy he survived two invasions of his birth country of
Hungary, first by Nazi Germany and then, just 3 years later, by
the Stalinist Soviet Union. This is probably why he said:
You know, I learned at a very early age that what kind
of social system or political system prevails is very important.
Not just for your well-being, but for your very survival.
Because, you know, I could have been killed by the Nazis. I
could have wasted my life under the Communists. So, that's what
led me to this idea of an open society. And that is the idea
that is motivating me.
~ George Soros ~
Soros is one of the 30 richest people on the planet, and a
controversial figure on the world scene because of his
unflinching devotion to democratic anti-totalitarianism – and
his critique of the path that his home country of USA has taken
in recent decades, both politically and economically.
I grew up in Hungary, lived through fascism and the Holocaust,
and then had a foretaste of communism. I learned at an early age
how important it is what kind of government prevails. I chose
America as my home because I value freedom and democracy, civil
liberties and an open society. When I had made more money than I
needed for myself and my family, I set up a foundation to
promote the values and principles of a free and open society.
~ George Soros freedom quotes ~
Mr. Soros personal ideology and philosophy is very much in line
with one of the 20th century's most prominent philosophers of
science, Karl Popper. Mr. Popper, and with him Mr. Soros, argue
that the only way for a society to thrive and grow is to stay
open and diverse in as many ways as possible. Therefore
individual rights, differing opinions, freedom of expression and
the system of democracy itself must be preserved. An open
society is in every way preferable to a totalitarian one.
An open society such as ours is based on the recognition that
our understanding of reality is inherently imperfect. Nobody is
in possession of the ultimate truth. As the philosopher Karl
Popper has shown, the ultimate truth is not attainable even in
science. All theories are subject to testing and the process of
replacing old theories with better ones never ends.
~ George Soros ~
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.
~ George Soros ~
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.
~ George Soros quotes on terrorism and democracy ~
If you want to read more about this maverick of international
economics and the controversial books he has authored (as well
as why he has been called 'The Man Who Broke the Bank of
England'), you will find a proper bio as well as a brief summary
of each of his books on this page:
George Soros biography
Funny George Soros Quotes
Though Soros is a man who focuses on the big picture he is the
man behind several fairly funny quotes.
For instance, when Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir of singled
Soros out for attack as something akin to an evil destroyer of
the Malaysian economy (statements he later modified), Soros
maintained that Mahathir did so for political and not the
economical reasons the Malaysian PM claimed. Said Soros about
Mahathir, "I hardly knew the man's name … He really
invented me. He needed me for his political purposes, so I’m a
figment of his imagination."
~ Funny George Soros quotes ~
Soros is also the guy who said:
Well, you know, I was a human being before I became a
businessman.
~ Funny George Soros quotes ~
And:
My principle is to survive first and make money afterward.
~ Funny George Soros quotes ~
As well as (commenting on his huge and widely recognized effort
to promote a peaceful system change from Communism to democracy
in the former Soviet states of Eastern Europe):
Just write that the former Soviet empire is now called the Soros
empire.
~ Funny George Soros quotes ~ (from: The Glenn Beck
Show, Nov. 10, 2010)
George Soros has the hilarious but somewhat unpleasant honor of
being one of the few people who is vehemently despised by BOTH
the extreme political left AND the extreme political right in
his own country (USA). The extreme left thinks he is way too
capitalistic and the extreme right thinks he is way too
socialistic.
An example of a George Soros quote that has deliberately been
shortened and cut out of its context in order to be used in an
attempt to defame him in the USA (that probably won't work
outside of the US, though, since many international observers
tend to agree with Soros) is the one below. The people trying to
elicit 'patriotic' feelings in the reader whilst defaming Soros
have taken to cutting the first sentence out of its context and
presenting it alone. Here is the full George Soros quote:
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United
States. This is a harsh – indeed, for me, painful – thing to
say, but unfortunately I am convinced it is true. The United
States continues to set the agenda for the world in spite of its
loss of influence since 9/11, and the Bush administration is
setting the wrong agenda. The Bush agenda is nationalistic: it
emphasizes the use of force and ignores global problems whose
solution requires international cooperation. The rest of the
world dances to the tune the United States is playing, and if
that continues too long we are in danger of destroying our
civilization. Changing the attitude and policies of the United
States remains my top priority.
~ George Soros quotes ~
Despite the fact that he is quite a controversial figure Soros
has received honorary doctoral degrees and other kinds of honors
from a number of schools and prominent universities around the
world, including (among others): Yale University, the University
of Oxford, the University of Bologna and the Corvinus University
of Budapest. His answer as to how he would describe himself goes
like this:
I would like to be called a financial, philanthropic and
philosophical speculator.
~ George Soros quotes ~
The fact that Soros is a divisive type of philanthropist is
reflected in many other quotes by George Soros. The rest of this
page presents a very large number of those, many of them rather
long because in many cases I have chosen to display the full
George Soros quotes rather than the abbreviated versions. All
these many quotes by George Soros sorted into groups under
headings like these:
– "George Soros Quotations about This and That (General Quotes)"
– "George Soros Quotes on Freedom, Open Society and Democracy"
– "George Soros Quotes on Marijuana and Drugs"
– "George Soros Quotes on Free Markets, Finance and
Globalization"
– "George Soros Quotes on Politics, Terrorism and War"
… and finally a couple of:
– "George Soros Quotes on Fox News"
Have fun!
George Soros Quotations about This and That
(General Quotes)
Fear is a bad counselor; we must resist it wherever it
comes from. President Roosevelt had the right idea when he said,
'We have nothing to fear but Fear itself.'
~ George Soros quotes ~
We must be willing to adjust our principles in light of
experience. This requires a critical attitude. We must recognise
that no one is in possession of the ultimate truth.
~ George Soros ~
I came to the conclusion that basically all of our views of the
world are somehow flawed or distorted, and then I concentrated
on the importance of this distortion in shaping events.
~ George Soros ~
What beliefs do is alter facts.
~ George Soros ~
The worse a situation becomes the less it takes to turn it
around, the bigger the upside.
~ George Soros ~
The traumatic experience of my life was the German occupation of
Hungary in 1944. I survived it because my father taught me at a
early age that it’s better to confront harsh reality than to
passively submit to it.
~ Quotes by George Soros ~
I think the world very much needs a conscience … I want my
foundation network to be the conscience of the world.
~ George Soros ~ (from: The Glenn Beck Show, Nov. 10,
2010)
We must not forget; but we must forgive. Suffering often such
compassion from the Jewish community. It was Jewish groups in
the US who were in the forefront in opposing the ethnic
cleansing of Muslim in Bosnia.
~ George Soros ~
I'm only rich because I know when I'm wrong.
~ George Soros ~
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.
~ George Soros ~
I changed my mind, and made an absolute fortune.
~ George Soros ~
When I had made more money than I needed for myself and my
family, I set up a foundation to promote the values and
principles of a free and open society.
~ George Soros ~
I really want to help people who are hurt. And if I do that, I
feel that my money is well-spent.
~ George Soros ~
To be successful you need leisure. You need time hanging heavily
on your hands.
~ George Soros ~
I’m a very bad judge of character. I’m a good judge of
stocks, and I have a reasonably good perspective on history. But
I am, really quite awful in judging character, and so I’ve
made many mistakes.
~ George Soros ~
I admit that I have always harbored an exaggerated view of my
self-importance – to put it bluntly, I fancied myself as some
kind of god or an economic reformer like Keynes (each with his
General Theory) or, even better, a scientist like Einstein
(reflexivity sounds like relativity).
~ George Soros ~ (from: 'The Alchemy of Finance')
If truth be known, I carried some rather potent messianic
fantasies with me from childhood which I felt I had to control,
otherwise I might end up in the loony bin. But when I made my
way in the world I wanted to indulge myself in my fantasies to
the extent that I could afford.
~ George Soros quotations ~ (from: 'Underwriting
Democracy: Encouraging Free Enterprise and Democratic Reform
among the Soviets and in Eastern Europe')
George Soros Quotes on Freedom, Open Society and Democracy
An open society is a society which allows its members the
greatest possible degree of freedom in pursuing their interests
compatible with the interests of others.
~ George Soros quotes on freedom ~
A full and fair discussion is essential to democracy.
~ George Soros ~
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. That it's possible to be
opposed to the policies without being unpatriotic.
~ George Soros ~
I give away something up to $500 million a year throughout the
world promoting Open Society. 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.
~ George Soros quotes on Open Society ~
I think you will have to be very, very careful to have the
regulations that will protect freedom.
~ George Soros freedom quotes ~
Each state is guided by its interests, not by some nebulous
concept of common interest. And not many states are even
democratic. So, you have a problem with the concept between
international institutions and sovereignty. To my mind, there is
a solution which has to do with democracy, because democratic
governments are subject to the will of the people. So, if the
people will it, you can actually create international
institutions through the democratic states.
~ George Soros ~
I do not accept the rules imposed by others. If I did, I would
not be alive today … And in periods of regime change, the
normal rules don't apply. One needs to adjust one's behavior to
the changing circumstances.
~ George Soros ~ (from: The Glenn Beck Show, Nov. 9,
2010)
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.
~ George Soros ~
The main difference between me and other people who have amassed
this kind of money is that I am primarily interested in ideas,
and I don't have much personal use for money. But I hate to
think what would have happened if I hadn't made money: My ideas
would not have gotten much play.
~ George Soros ~ (quoted in Mark Tier's 2006 book 'The
Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros)
I did spearhead the introduction of the Internet in countries
like Russia, the former Soviet Union, because it is a very open
system of communication. I think it has great potential for
self-organization and self-organization is very much at the
heart of an open society. The Internet is sort of a medium of
open society. However, it can also be a medium of control and so
we have to be careful it doesn't destroy you.
~ George Soros quotes ~
We need to maintain law and order. We need to maintain peace in
the world. We need to protect the environment. We need to have
some degree of social justice, equality of opportunity. The
markets are not designed to take care of those needs. That's a
political process. And the market fundamentalists have managed
to reduce providing those public goods.
~ George Soros ~
George Soros Quotes on Marijuana and Drugs
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.
~ 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.
~ 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.
~ George Soros ~
The absurdity of its illegality has been clear to me for some
time. I learned about pot from my kids and realized it was a lot
better than Scotch, and I loved the Scotch. Then I went to my
doctor, and he said, 'I'm thrilled. You're drinking too much.
You're much better off doing pot than drinking.'
~ George Soros ~
Proposition 19 already is a winner no matter what happens on
election day. The mere fact of its being on the ballot has
elevated and legitimized public discourse about marijuana and
marijuana policy in ways I could not have imagined a year ago.
~ George Soros ~
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.
~ George Soros ~
George Soros Quotes on Free
Markets, Finance and Globalization
I think there's a lot of merit in an international economy and
global markets, but they're not sufficient because markets don't
look after social needs.
~ George Soros ~
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.
~ George Soros economics quotes ~
The world's leaders urgently need to learn that they have to
lead markets and not seek to follow them. Of course, they also
need to get their policies right and forge a consensus – a
difficult trifecta.
~ George Soros quotes on free markets ~
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.
~ George Soros investment quotes ~
This asymmetry in the treatment of lenders and borrowers is a
major source of instability in the global capitalist system and
it needs to be corrected.
~ George Soros quotes ~
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.
~ George Soros free market quotes ~
The global crisis is caused by pathologies inherent in the
global financial system itself.
~ George Soros economics quotes ~
To stabilize and regulate a truly global economy, we need some
global system of political decision making. In short, we need a
global society to support our global economy… Interestingly,
the greatest opposition to this idea is coming from the United
States. With the right sense of leadership and with clarity of
purpose, the U.S. and its allies could help to stabilize the
global economic system … The opportunity is waiting to be
grasped.
~ George Soros globalization quotes ~ (from: The Glenn
Beck Show, Nov. 9, 2010)
A global society does not mean a global state. To abolish the
existence of states is neither feasible nor desirable; but
insofar as there are collective interests that transcend state
boundaries, the sovereignty of states must be subordinated to
international law and international institutions.
~ George Soros globalization quotes ~
Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux and
money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the
unexpected.
~ George Soros ~
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.
~ George Soros ~
The prevailing wisdom is that markets are always right.
I take the opposition position. I assume that markets are always
wrong. Even if my assumption is occasionally wrong, I use it as
a working hypothesis. It does not follow that one should always
go against the prevailing trend. On the contrary, most of the
time the trend prevails; only occasionally are the errors
corrected. It is only on those occasions that one should go
against the trend. This line of reasoning leads me to look for
the flaw in every investment thesis. … I am ahead of the
curve. I watch out for telltale signs that a trend may be
exhausted. Then I disengage from the herd and look for a
different investment thesis. Or, if I think the trend has been
carried to excess, I may probe going against it. Most of the
time we are punished if we go against the trend. Only at an
inflection point are we rewarded.
~ George Soros quotes ~
Economics tried to model itself on Newtonian physics. It sought
to establish universally and timelessly valid laws governing
reality. But economics is a social science and there is a
fundamental difference between the natural and social sciences.
Social phenomena have thinking participants who base their
decisions on imperfect knowledge. That is what economic theory
has tried to ignore.
~ George Soros ~
Obviously, I did not discover reflexivity. Others had recognized
it before me, often under a different name. Robert Merton wrote
about self fulfilling prophecies and the bandwagon effect,
Keynes compared financial markets to a beauty contest where the
participants had to guess who would be the most popular choice.
But starting from fallibility and reflexivity I focused on a
problem area, namely the role of misconceptions and
misunderstandings in shaping the course of events that
mainstream economics tried to ignore. This made my
interpretation of reality more realistic than the prevailing
paradigm.
~ George Soros ~
According to my theory financial markets may just as soon
produce bubbles as tend toward equilibrium. Since bubbles
disrupt financial markets, history has been punctuated by
financial crises. Each crisis provoked a regulatory response.
That is how central banking and financial regulations have
evolved, in step with the markets themselves. Bubbles occur only
intermittently but the interplay between markets and regulators
is ongoing. Since both market participants and regulators act on
the basis of imperfect knowledge the interplay between them is
reflexive. Moreover reflexivity and fallibility are not confined
to the financial markets; they also characterize other spheres
of social life, particularly politics. Indeed, in light of the
ongoing interaction between markets and regulators it is quite
misleading to study financial markets in isolation. Behind the
invisible hand of the market lies the visible hand of politics.
Instead of pursuing timeless laws and models we ought to study
events in their time bound context.
~ George Soros quotations on free markets ~
My interpretation of financial markets differs from the
prevailing paradigm in many ways. I emphasize the role of
misunderstandings and misconceptions in shaping the course of
history. And I treat bubbles as largely unpredictable. The
direction and its eventual reversal are predictable; the
magnitude and duration of the various phases is not. I contend
that taking fallibility as the starting point makes my
conceptual framework more realistic. But at a price: the idea
that laws or models of universal validity can predict the future
must be abandoned.
~ George Soros quotes on economic theory ~
Until recently, my interpretation of financial markets was
either ignored or dismissed by academic economists. All this has
changed since the crash of 2008. Reflexivity became recognized
but, with the exception of Imperfect Knowledge Economics, the
foundations of economic theory have not been subjected to the
profound rethinking that I consider necessary. Reflexivity has
been accommodated by speaking of multiple equilibria instead of
a single one. But that is not enough. The fallibility of market
participants, regulators, and economists must also be
recognized. A truly dynamic situation cannot be understood by
studying multiple equilibria. We need to study the process of
change.
~ George Soros quotes on free markets ~
The markets are always on the side of exuberance or fear. It's
fear and greed. Right now greed has the better of it, which is
rather nice (for investors) as long as it doesn't get out of
hand.
~ George Soros quotes ~
I expect by '07 there will be a significant decline in U.S.
consumer spending, and I don't see what will take its place,
because it's so important as the motor of the world economy.
~ George Soros ~
Recently we have seen financial markets sometimes move more like
a wrecking ball, knocking over one economy after another.
~ George Soros quotes ~
Something really is broken in the international financial
architecture … We're now in the 20th month of financial
crisis. Yet this crisis was brewing, it was the most anticipated
crisis in recent history.
~ George Soros ~
We live in a global economy, but the political organization of
our global society is woefully inadequate. We are bereft of the
capacity to preserve peace and to counteract the excesses of the
financial markets. Without these controls, the global economy,
is liable to break down
~ George Soros quotes on globalization ~
I advocate an alliance of democratic states, with a dual
purpose. One, to promote what I call open society. I talk about
an alliance of open societies which would first foster the
development of open societies within individual countries,
because there's a lot that needs to be done in that effort. And
secondly, to establish basic international law and international
institutions that you need for a global, open society. So that's
my sort of broad concept. Now, I have not worked out the
details, because I don't think it's for me to work out the
details. It's for them to work out the details.
~ George Soros ~
The development of a global economy has not been matched by the
development of a global society. The basic unit for political
and social life remains the nation-state. International law and
international institutions, insofar as they exist, are not
strong enough to prevent war or the large-scale abuse of human
rights in individual countries. Ecological threats are not
adequately dealt with. Global financial markets are largely
beyond the control of national or international authorities.
~ George Soros globalization quotes ~
Money is closely connected with credit but the role of credit is
less well understood than the role of money. This is not
surprising because credit is a reflexive phenomenon. Credit is
extended against collateral or some other evidence of credit
worthiness and the value of the collateral as well as the
measurements of creditworthiness are reflexive in character
because credit worthiness is in the eye of the creditor. The
value of collateral is influenced by the availability of credit.
This is particularly true for real estate. Banks are usually
willing to lend against real estate and the main variable in the
value of real estate is the amount the banks are willing to lend
against it. Strange as it may seem, the reflexive connection is
not recognised in theory and it is often forgotten in practice.
Construction is notorious for it’s boom/bust character and
after each bust bank managers become very cautious and resolve
never to become so exposed again. But when they again awash with
liquidity and desperate to put money to work, a new cycle
begins.
~ George Soros quotes on banks and credit ~
Financial markets are supposed to swing like a pendulum: They
may fluctuate wildly in response to exogenous shocks, but
eventually they are supposed to come to rest at an equilibrium
point and that point is supposed to be the same irrespective of
the interim fluctuations. Instead, as I told Congress, financial
markets behaved more like a wrecking ball, swinging from country
to country and knocking over the weaker ones. It is difficult to
escape the conclusion that the international financial system
itself constituted the main ingredient in the meltdown process.
~ George Soros free market quotes ~
Stock market bubbles don't grow out of thin air. They have a
solid basis in reality, but reality as distorted by a
misconception.
~ George Soros ~
The simple truth is that the private sector does not employ
available resources. Mr. Obama has in fact been very friendly to
business, and corporations are operating profitably. But instead
of investing, they are building up liquidity. Perhaps a
Republican victory would boost their confidence, but in the
meantime, investment and employment require fiscal stimulus.
~ George Soros quotes about economy ~ (from: Financial
Times, Oct. 4, 2010)
There's (a) problem that I think is brewing, and that is the end
of the housing boom in the United States and the ability of
households to spend more than they earn because the value of
their house is rising.
~ George Soros quotes ~
As the housing boom cools off, there will be a shortfall in
demand (which will) affect the global economy.
~ George Soros ~
I think this is a great opportunity to finally deal with global
warming and energy dependence. The US needs a cap and trade
system with auctioning of licenses for emissions rights. I would
use the revenues from these auctions to launch a new,
environmentally friendly energy policy. That would be yet
another federal program that could help us to overcome the
current stagnation.
~ George Soros ~
If investing is entertaining, if you're having fun, you're
probably not making any money. Good investing is boring.
~ George Soros ~
George Soros Quotes on Politics, Terrorism and War
My main concern is with the world order. (…) The world order
needs a major overhaul.
~ George Soros ~ (from: 'The Age of Fallibility:
Consequences of the War on Terror')
I argue that it's appropriate for people to pursue their profit
motive in business. If you want to change that, you're going
against human nature. But when it comes to setting the rules or
creating the institutions, then you should have the general
interest at heart, even if it conflicts with your personal
interest.
~ George Soros ~
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.
~ Quotes by George Soros ~
Let me say a few words about myself. You may know me as a
successful hedgefund manager, now retired, who knows a thing or
two about financial markets. But I am also a fervent believer of
the European Union as an embodiment of the ideal of an open
society and I don’t want the euro to destroy it. I have a
network of open society foundations which are active in various
parts of the world and I can testify from personal experience
that the world needs a strong and prosperous Europe devoted to
the principles of open society.
~ George Soros ~
We really need to bring China into the creation of a new world
order, financial world order. They are kind of reluctant members
of the IMF. They play along. But they don’t make much of a
contribution because it is not their institution. I think you
need a new world order: China has to be a part of the process of
creating it and they have to buy in. They have to own it.
~ George Soros ~
Well, certainly a decline in the value of the dollar is
necessary in order to compensate for the fact that the US
economy will remain rather weak, will be a drag on the global
economy. China will emerge as the motor replacing the US
consumer and, of course, it’s a smaller motor because the
Chinese economy is much smaller. So the world economy will have
less of a motor, so it will move forward slower than it has in
the last 25 years. But China will be the engine driving it
forward and the US will be actually a drag that’s being pulled
along through a gradual decline in the value of the dollar. So
there would be a slow decline in the value of the dollar. A
Managed decline. That would be the adjustment that it needs to
be accomplished. Now it could actually get out of hand and
certainly the fear of inflation will precede inflation itself.
~ George Soros ~
When you try to improve society, you affect different people
with different interests differently… And they are not
actually commensurate, so you very often have all kinds of
unintended, adverse consequences. So, I had to experiment and it
was a learning process. The first part was this subversive
activity disrupting repressive regimes. That was a lot of fun.
And that's actually what got me hooked on this whole enterprise.
~ George Soros ~ (from: The Glenn Beck Show, Nov. 10,
2010)
You see, for the last 25 years the world economy, the motor of
the world economy that has been driving it was consumption by
the American consumer who has been spending more than he has
been saving, all right? Than he’s been producing. So that
motor is now switched off. It’s finished. It’s run out of –
can’t continue. You need a new motor. And we have a big
problem. Global warming. It requires big investment. And that
could be the motor of the world economy in the years to
come…Instead of consuming, building an electricity grid,
saving on energy, rewiring the houses, adjusting your lifestyle
where energy has got to cost more until you introduce those new
things. So it will be painful. But at least we will survive and
not cook.
~ George Soros ~
It is much easier to put existing resources to better use, than
to develop resources where they do not exist.
~ George Soros ~
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. One way of doing this, without
violating sovereignty, is through constructive actions –
reinforcements and incentives for countries that are moving in
the right direction, toward an open society, a market economy,
et cetera. That is what I'm advocating. I'm advocating
preventive action of a constructive nature. And I would use
military force only as the very last resort, when nothing else
works.
~ George Soros ~
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.
~ George Soros quotations ~
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 ~
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.
~ George Soros ~
Americans, sadly, are now victims who have turned into
perpetrators. Indeed, since September 2001, the war on terror
has claimed more innocent victims than those terrorist attacks.
This fact is unrecognized at home because the victims of the war
on terror are not Americans. But the rest of the world does not
draw the same distinction, and world opinion has turned against
America.
~ George Soros war on terror quotes ~
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.
~ George Soros ~
The supremacist ideology of the Bush Administration stands in
opposition to the principles of an open society, which recognize
that people have different views and that nobody is in
possession of the ultimate truth. The supremacist ideology
postulates that just because we are stronger than others, we
know better and have right on our side. The very first sentence
of the September 2002 National Security Strategy (the
President's annual laying out to Congress of the country's
security objectives) reads, 'The great struggles of the
twentieth century between liberty and totalitarianism ended with
a decisive victory for the forces of freedom and a single
sustainable model for national success: freedom, democracy, and
free enterprise.' The assumptions behind this statement are
false on two counts. First, there is no single sustainable model
for national success. Second, the American model, which has
indeed been successful, is not available to others, because our
success depends greatly on our dominant position at the center
of the global capitalist system, and we are not willing to yield
it.
~ George Soros quotations on freedom and America ~
I find the idea that you can introduce democracy by military
force a very quaint idea. Moreover, if I wanted to choose a
testing ground for doing it, Iraq would be the last nation I
would choose.
~ George Soros democracy quotes ~
President Bush inadvertently played right into the hands of bin
Laden. The invasion of Afghanistan was justified: that was where
bin Laden lived and al Qaeda had its training camps. The
invasion of Iraq was not similarly justified. It was President
Bush's unintended gift to bin Laden.
~ George Soros war quotes ~
War is a false and misleading metaphor in the context of
combating terrorism. Crimes require police work, not military
action.
~ George Soros terrorism quotes ~ (fro: The Glenn Beck
Show, Nov. 9, 2010)
The war in Iraq was misconceived from start to finish – if it
has a finish. It is a war of choice, not of necessity, as
President Bush claims. It goes without saying that Saddam was a
tyrant, and it is good to be rid of him. But in invading Iraq as
we did, without a second UN resolution, we violated
international law. By mistreating and even torturing prisoners,
we violated the Geneva conventions. President Bush has boasted
that we do not need a permission slip from the international
community, but our disregard for international law has
endangered our security, particularly the security of our
troops.
~ George Soros democracy quotes ~
An open society is always in danger. It must constantly reaffirm
its principles in order to survive. We are being sorely tested,
first by 9/11 and then by President Bush's response. To pass the
test we must face reality instead of finding solace in false
certainties.
~ George Soros quotes about democracy ~
The Republican Party has been captured by a bunch of extremists:
People who maintain that markets will take care of everything,
that you leave it to the markets, and the markets know best.
Therefore, you need no government, no interference with
business. Let everybody pursue his own interests. And that will
serve the common interest. Now, there is a good foundation for
this. But it's a half-truth.
~ George Soros quotes about democracy ~
We are losing the values that have made America great. The
destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center was
such a horrendous event that it required a strong response. But
the President committed a fundamental error in thinking: the
fact that the terrorists are manifestly evil does not make
whatever counter-actions we take automatically good. What we do
to combat terrorism may also be wrong. Recognizing that we may
be wrong is the foundation of an open society.
~ George Soros quotes about the war on terror ~
War and occupation create innocent victims. We count the body
bags of American soldiers; there have been more than 1000 in
Iraq. The rest of the world also looks at the Iraqis who get
killed daily. There have been 15 times more. Some were trying to
kill our soldiers; far too many were totally innocent, including
many women and children. Every innocent death helps the
terrorists' cause by stirring anger against America and bringing
them potential recruits.
~ George Soros quotes on the war on terror ~
How can we escape from the trap that the terrorists have set us?
Only by recognizing that the war on terrorism cannot be won by
waging war. We must, of course, protect our security; but we
must also correct the grievances on which terrorism feeds. Crime
requires police work, not military action.
~ George Soros quotes on terrorism ~
I should like to challenge the very concept of the "war on
terror." It is a metaphor that needs to be challenged because it
has been accepted uncritically and applied literally. If anybody
dares to say that there is something wrong with framing the
struggle against terrorism as "the war on terror," it is
immediately assumed that there is something wrong with him. So
nobody dares to say it yet it needs to be said because the war
on terror as we have waged it since 9/11 has done more harm than
good. It has not prevented terrorist attacks around the world
yet it has diverted our attention from other vital tasks (like
strengthening the levees in New Orleans), damaged our dominant
position in the world and endangered our open society.
~ George Soros war on terror quotes ~ (in the Wall
Street Journal)
Bush's war in Iraq has done untold damage to the United States.
It has impaired our military power and undermined the morale of
our armed forces. Our troops were trained to project
overwhelming power. They were not trained for occupation duties.
~ George Soros quotes about war ~
This is the most important election of my lifetime. I have never
been heavily involved in partisan politics but these are not
normal times. President Bush is endangering our safety, hurting
our vital interests and undermining American values. That is why
I am publishing this message. I have been demonized by the Bush
campaign but I hope you will give me a hearing.
~ George Soros ~
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.
~ George Soros quotes about terrorists ~
There is a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. The policies
of the Bush administration and the Sharon administration
contribute to that. It's not specifically anti-Semitism, but it
does manifest itself in anti-Semitism as well.
~ George Soros ~
George Soros Quotes on Fox News (an Ultra-Conservative
TV-Network)
Fox News makes a habit … it has imported the methods of George
Orwell – Newspeak – where you can tell the people falsehoods and
deceive them … You wouldn't believe that in an open society, a
democracy, these methods can succeed. But actually they did
succeed, they succeeded in Germany where the Weimar Republic
collapsed and you had the Nazi regime following. So this is a
very, very dangerous way of deceiving people, and I would like
people to be aware that they are being deceived … Because I
saw it as a child, I immediately react that way; but people in
America are innocent, they haven't had that experience; they're
having the experience now, and I hope they wake up and realize
they are being deceived.
~ George Soros ~
Despite repeated assertions to the contrary by various Fox News
commentators, I have not to date been a funder of Media Matters.
However, in view of recent evidence suggesting that the
incendiary rhetoric of Fox News hosts may incite violence, I
have now decided to support the organization. Media Matters is
one of the few groups that attempts to hold Fox News accountable
for the false and misleading information they so often
broadcast. I am supporting Media Matters in an effort to more
widely publicize the challenge Fox News poses to civil and
informed discourse in our democracy.
~ George Soros ~
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