Financial Ethics Quotes

Usury lives in the pores of production, as it were, just as the gods of Epicurus lived in the space between the worlds.

I get really, really concerned when I see somebody, taking $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, will not release what they're actually saying. That's concerning.

Sometimes I hear news about the huge dollars involved with CEO pay and corporate-management salaries, and I'm mystified at how someone can justify taking that much at the cost of other people's livelihoods. In a bizarre way, I'm almost kind of curious, like "How can they absolve themselves and enjoy their wealth?" I don't understand it.

Banks were already seen as greedy and arrogant. They have now reached the depths of humiliation in the wake of the LIBOR manipulation, PPI mis-selling, and bank swaps mis-selling.

I don't like indecent, unearned wealth. But it is legitimate for an entrepreneur who has created something to make a good living.

Money is not good or evil. It has no morals or intentions on its own. Money reflects the character of the user.

Borrowing is not much better than begging; just as lending with interest is not much better than stealing.

Capital as such is not evil. It is its wrong use that is evil. Capital, in some form or other, will always be needed.

Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

I would ask: Given the nature of free-market capitalism - where the rule is to rise to the top at all costs - is it possible to have a financial industry hero? And by the way, this is not a pop-culture trend we're talking about. There aren't many financial heroes in literature, theater or cinema.

Critics say the OWS protesters hate the rich. Come on! Success is the national religion, and almost everyone is a believer. Americans love winners. But that's just the problem. These guys on Wall Street are not winning - they're cheating. And as much as we love the self-made success story, we hate the cheater that much more.

I believe that currency trading should not be a business at all.

There's more honor in investment management than in investment banking.

Money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest. And this term interest, which means the birth of money from money, is applied to the breeding of money because the offspring resembles the parent. Wherefore of all modes of getting wealth this is the most unnatural.

A fiduciary standard means, basically, put the interests of the client first. No excuses. Period.

Conscience and wealth are not always neighbors.

The government is promoting bad behavior... do we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages... This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor's mortgage? President Obama are you listening? How about we all stop paying our mortgage! It's a moral hazard

My view on candidates on money is unless it's proven that the donor stole the money, the campaign keeps the money.

I just don't understand, if they see numbers [of CEO salaries]that represent people, how they can somehow skirt around that and morally justify taking or ruining those lives and leaving them with nothing. That, to me, is violent crime. It's certainly more violent than selling grams of pot to other adults.

Money is not of the devil. It depends on who's controlling it.

I don't want to sell credit to people who are going to hurt themselves with it. You should only sell products that are good for the people who use them. Some disagree with this, but I know I'm right. That is to say, you're talking to a Republican who admires Elizabeth Warren.

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

It means zero to be against greed.

The avoidance of tax may be lawful, but it is not yet a virtue.

For I can raise no money by vile means.