Jim Rogers Quotes & Sayings

If you bail out every investment bank that gets in trouble, that's not capitalism, that's socialism for the rich — Jim Rogers

History shows that people who save and invest grown and prosper, and the others deteriorate and collapse. — Jim Rogers

You can no longer buy commodities at Merrill Lynch. My guess is many analysts and even executives are too young to know how profitable a hot commodities market can be. They will soon. — Jim Rogers

There is no such thing as a paper loss. A paper loss is a very real loss. — Jim Rogers

I was poor once, I didn't like it, I don't want to be poor again. — Jim Rogers

Debasing your currency sometimes works in the short term, it has never worked in the long term and does not even usually work in the medium term. Lots of politicians like to do it because it is an easy way. — Jim Rogers

Nearly every time I strayed from the herd, I've made a lot of money. Wandering away from the action is the way to find the new action. — Jim Rogers

Buy low and sell high. It's pretty simple. The problem is knowing what's low and what's high. — Jim Rogers

Bottoms in the investment world don't end with four-year lows; they end with 10- or 15-year lows. — Jim Rogers

Paper money is made of cotton, and I'm long cotton, by the way. One reason I'm long cotton is because Dr. Bernanke is out there running the printing presses as fast as he can. — Jim Rogers

The Roman censor Appius Claudius the Blind said, Every man is the architect of his own fortune. — Jim Rogers

Teach your children or your grandchildren Chinese. It is going to be the most important language of their lifetimes. — Jim Rogers

If everyone thinks one way, it is likely to be wrong. If you can figure out that it is wrong, you are likely to make a lot of money. — Jim Rogers

I've got one shot going through this life. I want to make sure I do as much as I can. — Jim Rogers

Do not worry about failure, I would tell them. Do not worry about making mistakes in life. It is good to lose money, to go broke at least once, and preferably twice. But if you are going to do it, do it early in your career. It is better to go bust when you are talking about $20,000 than when you are talking about $20 million. Do it early, and it is not the end of the world. — Jim Rogers

If everyone saw himself as a citizen of the world rather than of his town, city or country, the world would be a more peaceful, better place where success in all forms is abundant and available to all. (A Gift to My Children) — Jim Rogers

Acknowledge the complexity of the world and resist the impression that you easily understand it. People are too quick to accept conventional wisdom, because it sounds basically true and it tends to be reinforced by both their peers and opinion leaders, many of whome have never looked at whether the facts support the received wisdom. It's a basic fact of life that many things "everybody knows" turn out to be wrong. — Jim Rogers

It's a lot of fun finding a country that nobody knows about. The only thing better is finding a country everybody's bullish on and shorting it. — Jim Rogers

Not one country in existence today has had the same borders and government for as long as two hundred years. The world will continue changing. — Jim Rogers

If you want to make a lot of money, resist diversification. — Jim Rogers

They wouldn't be politicians if they knew what they were doing. — Jim Rogers

You will never get anywhere if you do not do your homework. — Jim Rogers

I cannot invest the way I want the world to be; I have to invest the way the world is. — Jim Rogers

Commodities tend to zig when the equity markets zag. — Jim Rogers

Historically, there has been a bull market in commodities every 20 or 30 years. — Jim Rogers

One of the best rules anybody can learn about investing is to do nothing, absolutely nothing, unless there is something to do. I just wait until there is money lying in the corner, and all I have to do is go over there and pick it up. I wait for a situation that is like the proverbial shooting fish in a barrel. — Jim Rogers

Most of my thoughts, you couldn't print. — Jim Rogers

I have learned that when you've done your homework, once you recognize that supply and demand are totally out of whack, and you make your move, you are definitely going to get very lucky. — Jim Rogers

We wanted to take Polaroids of her and all the kids, about eight of them, of all ages, several photos, so we could give some to the family. She grabbed her youngest and asked us to wait. And then like any mother, anywhere in the world - do not let anyone tell you that people are fundamentally different - she combed the child's hair and changed his shirt before letting him pose for the pictures. The second shirt was slightly less dirty than the first. She wanted him to look his best. That mother could have been in Greenwich, Connecticut, as easily as on the steppes of Mongolia. — Jim Rogers

The most sensible skill that I can give to somebody born in 2003 is a perfect command of Mandarin. — Jim Rogers

Beware of all politicians everywhere. They excelled at recess when they were in school but have excelled at little since. — Jim Rogers

If you were smart in 1807 you moved to London, if you were smart in 1907 you moved to New York City, and if you are smart in 2007 you move to Asia. — Jim Rogers

Tough times helped many commodities producers become lean and mean through consolidation, mergers and cost-cutting. All that excess supply has been sopped up. — Jim Rogers

If the current birth rate, which is the lowest in the major developed countries, continues, there will be no Japanese. Who will pay the enormous debt? — Jim Rogers

Following what everyone else is doing is rarely a way to get rich. — Jim Rogers

Unfortunately politicians are not very sound people or they wouldn't be politicians. — Jim Rogers

Lady Luck smiles on those who continue their efforts — Jim Rogers

Get inside information from the president and you will probably lose half your money. If you get it from the chairman of the board, you will lose all of your money. — Jim Rogers

If anybody laughs at your idea, view it as a sign of potential success! — Jim Rogers

Right now I own shares of companies in 28 countries. — Jim Rogers

The Federal Reserve was not founded to bail out Bear Stearns or a few hedge funds. It was founded to keep a stable currency and maintain its value. — Jim Rogers

I just wait until there is money lying in the corner, and all I have to do is go over there and pick it up. I do nothing in the meantime. — Jim Rogers

Do not buy the hype from Wall St. and the press that stocks always go up. There are long periods when stocks do nothing and other investments are better. — Jim Rogers

My basic advise is don't lose money — Jim Rogers

The last leg of a bull market always ends in hysteria; the last leg of a bear market always ends in panic. — Jim Rogers

The biggest public fallacy is that the market is always right. The market is nearly always wrong. I can assure you of that. — Jim Rogers

Index investing outperforms active management year after year. — Jim Rogers

Many investors seem to have forgotten a hard reality: There are frequent periods when stock markets don't do much. — Jim Rogers

Never act upon wishful thinking. Act without checking the facts, and chances are that you will be swept away along with the mob. — Jim Rogers

Most successful investors, in fact, do nothing most of the time. — Jim Rogers

The basic skills of math, English and writing are not enough, ... You must develop a basic system of values to form and guide the use of these skills. The true test will not be what you learned in college, but how you used what you learned. — Jim Rogers

The first loss is the best loss. — Jim Rogers

You don't train for only the 100-meter dash and you don't practice only the excerpts. When I prepared for auditions, I spent most of my time each day on scales and exercises to be my best in basic musicianship, and only a half-hour or so on the actual excerpts I'd be playing. — Jim Rogers

Morocco, one of the more fully developed countries in Africa, with a solid infrastructure and a population of about 27 million, holds roughly two thirds of the world's reserves of phosphate rock - phosphate deposits are to Morocco as oil is to Venezuela - and dominates the world market in this vital — Jim Rogers

I don't think there is a sound UK bank now, at least, if there is one I don't know about it. The City of London is finished, the financial centre of the world is moving east. All the money is in Asia. Why would it go back to the West? You don't need London. — Jim Rogers

Botswana was rich in diamonds, Ghana in cocoa and gold, Morocco in phosphates. There were many countries I was eager to visit and revisit, such as Zambia, with its emeralds and copper, and Cameroon, awash in oil. I could not wait to visit — Jim Rogers

When things go wrong on a macroeconomic level, it's almost always this way. People find someone to blame, whether it's blacks, whites, Christians, Jews, Muslims-whoever. — Jim Rogers

Without giving specific names, most of the significant American banks, the larger banks, are bankrupt, totally bankrupt, — Jim Rogers

Those who can not adjust to change will be swept aside by it. Those who recognize change and react accordingly will benefit. — Jim Rogers

According to the media and other stock market "experts," the equities bull is forever hiding just around that next corner on Wall Street. But millions of investors who listened to the experts back in 1998-2001 about "the New Economy" get hammered in the stock market and are still trying to get back to even.
The smart investor looks for opportunities to acquire value on the cheap, with one eye out for a dynamic change in the offing that might make that investment even more valuable. — Jim Rogers

I think this is also a great time to invest in private equity, helping companies grow from the ground up. — Jim Rogers

Diversification is something that stock brokers came up with to protect themselves, so they wouldn't get sued for making bad investment choices for clients. Henry Ford never diversified, Bill Gates didn't diversify. The way to get rich is to put your eggs in one basket, but watch that basket very carefully. And make sure you have the right basket. — Jim Rogers

The price of a commodity will never go to zero. When you invest in commodities futures, you're not buying a piece of paper that says you own an intangible piece of company that can go bankrupt. — Jim Rogers

If you want to be lucky, do your homework. — Jim Rogers

This is the legacy of China's one-child policy, instituted in 1980 (and just officially ended in 2002). Studies have shown that only children and firstborns are usually smarter, more driven, and more accomplished than other children. And, of course, they are more often spoiled. In China one finds an entire country of only children. Everybody's child is special, smarter, more driven, and more accomplished - or — Jim Rogers