Top 500 Ray Dalio Quotes (2024 Update)
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301. “Be imprecise. Understand the concept of “by-and-large” and use approximations. Because our educational system is hung up on precision, the art of being good at approximations is insufficiently valued. This impedes conceptual thinking.”

— Ray Dalio

302. “Julius Caesar’s overthrow of the Roman Senate and Republic as an illustration of how important it is to make sure no one person is more powerful than the system.”

— Ray Dalio

303. “I had grown up in an era of high volatility and had learned that the best way to play it was to get a hold of a big move and ride it.”

— Ray Dalio

304. “I believe that great cultures, like great people, recognize that making mistakes is part of the process of learning, and that continuous learning is what allows an organization to evolve successfully over time.”

— Ray Dalio

305. “The courage that’s needed the most isn’t the kind that drives you to prevail over others, but the kind that allows you to be true to your truest self, no matter what other people want you to be.”

— Ray Dalio

306. “Make sure those who are given radical transparency recognize their responsibilities to handle it well and to weigh things intelligently. People cannot be given the privilege of receiving information and then use the information to harm the company, so rules and procedures must be in place to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

— Ray Dalio

307. “If you find you can’t reconcile major differences – especially in values – consider whether the relationship is worth preserving.”

— Ray Dalio

308. “To me, meaningful work is being on a mission I become engrossed in, and meaningful relationships are those I have with people I care deeply about and who care deeply about me. Think about it: It’s senseless to have making money as your goal as money has no intrinsic value – its value comes from what it can buy, and it can’t buy everything.”

— Ray Dalio

309. “I believe that the key to success lies in knowing how to both strive for a lot and fail well. By failing well, I mean being able to experience painful failures that provide big learnings without failing badly enough to get knocked out of the game.”

— Ray Dalio

310. “I urge you to be curious enough to want to understand how the people who see things differently from you came to see them that way. You will find that interesting and invaluable, and the richer perspective you gain will help you decide what you should do.”

— Ray Dalio

311. “In thinking about the relative importance of great relationships and money, it was clear that relationships were more important because there is no amount of money I would take in exchange for a meaningful relationship, because there is nothing I could buy with that money that would be more valuable.”

— Ray Dalio

312. “I’ve also learned that judging people before really seeing things through their eyes stands in the way of understanding their circumstances – and that isn’t smart.”

— Ray Dalio

313. “Create a Culture in Which It Is Okay to Make Mistakes and Unacceptable Not to Learn from Them.”

— Ray Dalio

314. “But this approach fails in cases where the future is different from the past and you don’t know the cause-effect relationships well enough to recognize them all. Understanding these relationships as I do has saved me from making mistakes when others did, most obviously in the 2008 financial crisis. Nearly everyone else assumed that the future would be similar to the past. Focusing strictly on the logical cause-effect relationships was what allowed us to see what was really going on.”

— Ray Dalio

315. “When offered the choice of being fair with you or taking more for themselves, most people will take more for themselves.”

— Ray Dalio

316. “Evolving is life’s greatest accomplishment and its greatest reward.”

— Ray Dalio

317. “Radical open- mindedness and radical transparency are invaluable for rapid learning and effective change.”

— Ray Dalio

318. “Don’t be afraid to fix the difficult things.”

— Ray Dalio

319. “Make your passion and your work one and the same and do it with people you want to be with.”

— Ray Dalio

320. “Help people through the pain that comes with exploring their weaknesses. Emotions tend to heat up during most disagreements, especially when the subject is someone’s weaknesses. Speak in a calm, slow, and analytical manner to facilitate communication.”

— Ray Dalio

321. “Closed-minded people block others from speaking. If it seems like someone isn’t leaving space for the other person in a conversation, it’s possible they are blocking. To get around blocking, enforce the “two-minute rule” I mentioned earlier.”

— Ray Dalio

322. “Don’t get frustrated. If nothing bad is happening to you now, wait a bit and it will. That is just reality.”

— Ray Dalio

323. “Never rule out a goal because you think it’s unattainable. Be audacious. There is always a best possible path. Your job is to find it and have the courage to follow it. What you think is attainable is just a function of what you know at the moment. Once you start your pursuit you will learn a lot, especially if you triangulate with others; paths you never saw before will emerge.”

— Ray Dalio

324. “All Weather Portfolio.”

— Ray Dalio

325. “To have a real idea meritocracy, there must be transparency so that people can see things for themselves.”

— Ray Dalio

326. “I began to experience painful moments in a radically different way. Instead of feeling frustrated or overwhelmed, I saw pain as nature’s reminder that there is something important for me to learn.”

— Ray Dalio

327. “Never seize on the first available option, no matter how good it seems, before you’ve asked questions and explored. To prevent myself from falling into this trap, I used to literally ask myself questions: Am I learning? Have I learned enough yet that it’s time for deciding?”

— Ray Dalio

328. “It’ll be decades – and maybe never – before the computer can replicate many of the things that the brain can do in terms of imagination, synthesis, and creativity. That’s because the brain comes genetically programmed with millions of years of abilities honed through evolution. The “science” of decision making that underlies many computer systems remains much less valuable than the “art.”

— Ray Dalio

329. “Fast talking can be especially effective when it’s used against people worried about appearing stupid. Don’t be one of those people. Recognize that it’s your responsibility to make sense of things and don’t move on until you do. If you’re feeling pressured, say something like “Sorry for being stupid, but I’m going to need to slow you down so I can make sense of what you’re saying.” Then ask your questions. All of them.”

— Ray Dalio

330. “I believe that everything that happens comes about because of cause-effect relationships that repeat and evolve over time.”

— Ray Dalio

331. “Be clear on whether you are arguing or seeking to understand, and think about which is most appropriate based on your and others’ believability.”

— Ray Dalio

332. “For most people, being part of a great community on a shared mission is even more rewarding than money. Numerous studies have shown there is little to no correlation between one’s happiness and the amount of money one accumulates, yet there is a strong correlation between one’s happiness and the quality of one’s relationships.”

— Ray Dalio

333. “What happens after we crash is most important. Successful people change in ways that allow them to continue to take advantage of their strengths while compensating for their weaknesses and unsuccessful people don’t.”

— Ray Dalio

334. “Yet most people are like ants focused only on themselves and their own anthill; they believe the universe revolves around people and don’t pay attention to the universal laws that are true for all species.”

— Ray Dalio

335. “I’ve always been an independent thinker inclined to take risks in search of rewards – not just in the markets, but in most everything.”

— Ray Dalio

336. “It is the rare bird who has the right mix of common sense, creativity, and character to shape change.”

— Ray Dalio

337. “The main test of a great partnership is not whether the partners ever disagree – people in all healthy relationships disagree – but whether they can bring their disagreements to the surface and get through them well.”

— Ray Dalio

338. “Remember that people typically don’t change all that much.”

— Ray Dalio

339. “Power should lie in the reasoning, not the position, of the individual. The best ideas win no matter who they come from.”

— Ray Dalio

340. “Chances are you won’t have time to deal with the unimportant things, which is better than not having time to deal with the impor-tant things. I often hear people say, “Wouldn’t it be good to do this or that?” It’s likely they are being distracted from far more important things that need to be done well.”

— Ray Dalio

341. “I believe that all organizations basically have two types of people: those who work to be part of a mission, and those who work for a paycheck. I wanted to surround myself with people who needed what I needed, which was to make sense of things for myself. I spoke frankly, and I expected those around me to speak frankly. I fought for what I thought was best, and I wanted them to do so as well.”

— Ray Dalio

342. “In picking people for long-term relationships, values are most important, abilities come next, and skills are the least important.”

— Ray Dalio

343. “I also punched my boss in the face. Not surprisingly, I was fired.”

— Ray Dalio

344. “People interested in making the best possible decisions are rarely confident that they have the best answers.”

— Ray Dalio

345. “In order to be great, one can’t compromise the uncompromisable.”

— Ray Dalio

346. “Go back before you go forward.”

— Ray Dalio

347. “I learned that creative genius and insanity can be quite close to each other, that the same chemistry that creates insights can cause distortions, and that being stuck in one’s own head is terribly dangerous.”

— Ray Dalio

348. “When a problem stems from your own lack of talent or skill, most people feel shame. Get over it. I cannot emphasize this enough: Acknowledging your weaknesses is not the same as surrendering to them. It’s the first step toward overcoming them. The pains you are feeling are “growing pains” that will test your character and reward you as you push through them.”

— Ray Dalio

349. “Winston Churchill hit the nail on the head when he said, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

— Ray Dalio

350. “I have come to realize that bad times coupled with good reflections provide some of the best lessons, and not just about business but also about relationships.”

— Ray Dalio