In some cultures, when you give someone a gift, it's expected that they will pass it on. This seems like a peculiar practice in the West, but in many other societies, a gift has a spirit. If you try to possess the gift, you remove its spirit as a gift.

Researchers have compared brain scans of those people who are making money to those high on cocaine and found that them to be almost identical. Money has a biological and psychological effect on us.

When you go to a Japense wedding, make sure that you tie the ribbon on the present tightly because if you don't, you may imply that you don't think the marriage will last.

Researchers have found that identical twins who have been separated for long periods of time actually invest in a similar manner. Biology really does affect how we spend money.

Money is really like blood. You need it to live but it isn't the point of life.

The oldest and most important currency is debt.

Money numbs your senses. People who touched paper money and then placed their hands in hot burning water didn't feel as much pain as those who hadn't touched money.

I think the money for the solutions for global poverty is on Wall Street. Wall Street allocates capital. And we need to get capital to the ideas that are successful, whether it's microfinance, whether it's through financial literacy programs, Wall Street can be the engine that makes capital get to the people who need it.

People have tried to control other people by trapping them with debt. A loan can become a harmful and dangerous weapon.

It's ok to say I don't know. Realizing this earlier in my career would have put me more at ease.

The New Testament states that man cannot serve two masters. He must choose one -God, and not the other - money. For what man chooses will reveal his heart.

We are privileged that the dollar is the currency of last resort and the most important currency in the world. Global commodities are priced in dollars. Central banks in other countries hold great quantities of dollars. The dollar was the safe harbor, the port in the storm during the credit crisis.

Albert Murray's The Omni-Americans is the most valuable non-business book because it discusses how you have to draw upon everyone's creativity. America is a mash-up of cultures and traditions, and great businesses know how to tap the strengths of all their employees, whatever their background may be.

The challenge of our generation, whether it's young lawyers, young investment bankers, is to make capitalism work for people not just around the corner, but for people all around the world.

Gone is the day where you work at a job for thirty years and retire. Millennials jump around and switch careers. I think it's important for CEOs to highlight career mobility within a company, so that employees don't get bored and continue to be stimulated.

Reputation will become an even more important currency in the future.

We need to have financial literacy in America, not just complaining about obstructionism. We need solutions. And I think the solutions are using high finance to make capitalism work for people around the world.