“I was raising the question on the side with Governor Mullins of what would happen if the Treasury sold a little gold in this market.”

When trust is lost, a nation’s ability to transact business is palpably undermined.

It keeps interest rates lower than they otherwise would be and frees savings to finance increases in the capital stock, thereby boosting productivity and real incomes.

The number one problem in today’s generation and economy is the lack of financial literacy.

I don’t think it’s possible for the Fed to end its easy-money policies in a trouble-free manner.

Any informed borrower is simply less vulnerable to fraud and abuse.

The free lunch has still to be invented.

Some succeed for a time. But while there may occasionally be mis-configurations among market prices that allow abnormal returns, they do not persist.

The gut-feel of the 55-year old trader is more important than the mathematical elegance of the 25-year old genius.

Since I’ve become a central banker, I’ve learned to mumble with great incoherence.

I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.

History cannot be reduced to a set of statistics and probabilities.

Nor can private counterparties restrict supplies of gold, another commodity whose derivatives are often traded over-the-counter, where central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise.

The companies could hire the educated workers they need. And those workers would compete with high-income people, driving more income equality.

I have one other issue I’d like to throw on the table. I hesitate to do it, but let me tell you some of the issues that are involved here.

Capitalism is based on self-interest and self-esteem; it holds integrity and trustworthiness as cardinal virtues and makes them pay off in the marketplace, thus demanding that men survive by means of virtue, not vices.

There is no safe store of value. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the hidden confiscation of wealth.

He who attempts to control another is a governor, an aggressor, an invader; and the nature of such invasion is not changed, whether it is made by one man upon another man,

I would not then come to Governor Harrison to ask him to tear up the treaty, and to obliterate the landmark, but I would say to him, “Sir, you have the liberty to return to your own country.”

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

I pray to God. I don’t pray to the president, the governor, the mayor, no black caucus, no this and that. I pray to God, and that’s the end of it.

I wanted to say to Governor Dean, don’t be hard on yourself about hooting and hollering.

As I ran for president, I hoped that one child would come out of the ghetto like I did, could look at me walk across the stage with governors and senators and know they didn’t have to be a drug dealer.

Force and right are the governors of this world; force till right is ready.