262 Quotes by Ray Dalio

What was most important wasn’t knowing the future – it was knowing how to react appropriately to the information available at each point in time.

Appreciate the art of thoughtful disagreement.

Managers who do not understand people’s different thinking styles cannot understand how the people working for them will handle different situations.

It all comes down to interest rates. As an investor, all you’re doing is putting up a lump-sump payment for a future cash flow.

Don’t put the expedient ahead of the strategic.

Ask yourself whether you have earned the right to have an opinion. Opinions are easy to produce, so bad ones abound. Knowing that you don’t know something is nearly as valuable as knowing it. The worst situation is thinking you know something when you don’t.

Don’t let fears of what others think of you stand in your way. You must be willing to do things in the unique ways you think are best.

This way of thinking about risk caused many investors to increase their exposures beyond what would normally be seen as prudent. They looked at the recent volatility in their VAR calculations, and by and large expected it to continue moving forward. This is human nature and it was dumb because past volatility and past correlations aren’t reliable forecasts of future risks.

Everyone has to decide for themselves what works for them and their organization.