Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Soros accepts profit motives as natural but insists institutions should serve the general interest.
In plain terms
Business can seek profit, but rules should protect everyone.
What can you take from it?
Private gain must be balanced with public good.

Where it applies

  • corporate governance
  • policy making
  • economic debate

Putting it to work

  • setting industry standards
  • lobbying for fair rules

Questions to consider

  • How do you balance profit and ethics?
  • Who decides the general interest?

Another view

Defining general interest can be politically contentious.

More from George Soros

  1. Well, you know, I was a human being before I became a businessman.

    Permalink to quote #24
  2. You know, these things interested me before I became a businessman and I kind of neglected them during twenty, twenty-five years, while I was engaged in making…

    Permalink to quote #26
  3. 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 measu…

    Permalink to quote #23

Related quotes

  1. It is generally agreed that casinos should, in the public interest, be inaccessible and expensive. And perhaps the same is true of Stock Exchanges.

    John Maynard KeynesJohn Maynard Keynes quote #46
  2. 'Democracy is a means of achieving a higher level of individual and collective gratification, welfare, peace, stability and prosperity. It is not an end in its…

    Kaliopate TavolaKaliopate Tavola quote #1
  3. With humble duty, I wish to submit to you the following advice, acting in my capacity as your representative in Fiji. Owing to the uncertainty of the political…

    Ratu Sir Penaia GanilauRatu Sir Penaia Ganilau quote #1