Principles are concepts that can be applied over and over again in similar circumstances as distinct from narrow answers to specific questions. Every game has principles that successful players master to achieve winning results. So does life. Principles are ways of successfully dealing with the laws of nature or the laws of life. Those who understand more of them and understand them well know how to interact with the world more effectively than those who know fewer of them or know them less well.
Ray DalioI have been very lucky because I have had the opportunity to see what it's like to have little or no money and what it's like to have a lot of it. I'm lucky because people make such a big deal of it and, if I didn't experience both, I wouldn't be able to know how important it really is for me. I can't comment on what having a lot of money means to others, but I do know that for me, having a lot more money isn't a lot better than having enough to cover the basics.
Ray DalioI'd like to be clear that a number of people find me intolerable, and they don't hesitate to say so - which they and I cherish.
Ray DalioI believe that dreamers who simply imagine things that would be nice but are not possible donโt sufficiently appreciate the laws of the universe to understand the true implications of their desires, much less how to achieve them.
Ray DalioNature gave us pain as a messaging device to tell us that we are approaching, or that we have exceeded, our limits in some way.
Ray DalioDon't be a perfectionist, because perfectionists often spend too much time on little differences at the margins at the expense of other big, important things. Be an effective imperfectionist. Solutions that broadly work well (e.g., how people should contact each other in the event of crises) are generally better than highly specialized solutions (e.g., how each person should contact each other in the event of every conceivable crisis).
Ray Dalio