Samuel Johnson Quotes

We have seen that in this country in the last few years, particularly on Wall Street, with the rise of the old human frailty of greed. This occurs when people begin to serve only their own needs to the detriment of everyone else.

Have I given any symptoms of an avaricious disposition? Have I obtained any grants from the crown since I have been placed at the head of the treasury? Has my conduct been different from that which others in the same station would have followed?

The FSG story starts to lose its fairy-tale aura when filthy lucre invades the sacred enclosure, as it did ubiquitously in the every-man-for-himself Reagan era.

All institutions are prone to corruption and to the vices of their members.

Resist the temptation to exploit power for personal or group interests.

The depraved nature of man is well known. He has a natural bias toward his own interest, which will prevail ... unless checked.

You can't keep fraud out of the system. The key to good regulation is how quickly you catch it.

Greed has been severely underestimated and denigrated—unfairly so in my opinion. … there's nothing wrong with avarice as a motive as long as it doesn't lead to dishonest … conduct.

No salaries should be allowed the public Officers, but that their necessary expenses should be defrayed. This would make Men, he said, more desirous of obtaining the Esteem of their Country-men, than avaricious or eager in the pursuit of wealth.

Riches cannot be gathered without sin and evil means.

Opportunities for fraud are open and they are taken advantage of. The most elementary precautions are neither taken nor even contemplated. The reverse is the case. People such as myself who attempt to bring openness and accountability to the system are pursued, suspended and dismissed.

There is no honest man! not one, that can resist the attraction of gold!

Only deeds give strength to life, only moderation gives it charm.

Thou shalt not steal; an empty feat, When it's so lucrative to cheat.

Managers that always promise to 'make the numbers' will at some point be tempted to make up the numbers.

Fraud is the daughter of greed.

Keep your hands clean and pure from the infamous vice of corruption, a vice so infamous that it degrades even the other vices thatmay accompany it. Accept no present whatever; let your character in that respect be transparent and without the least speck, for as avarice is the vilest and dirtiest vice in private, corruption is so in public life.

It is time to put in place tough, new common-sense rules of the road so that our financial market rewards drive and innovation, and punishes short-cuts and abuse.

If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed.

What is the chief end of man?-to get rich. In what way?-dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must.

Is it less dishonest to do what is wrong because it is not expressly prohibited by written law? Let us hope our moral principles are not yet in that stage of degeneracy.

A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood.

Do what you know is right, but try not to get caught.

If religion does not make us better people, it will make us very much worse. And of all the bad men who have lived, the religious "bad man" is the worst of all.

For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.