Economics is like a church, and it fulfills the same function the church had fulfilled for centuries: the justification of the status quo.

It seems far-fetched, even preposterous, to blame the global economic order for the persistence of severe poverty in countries that are ruled by obvious thugs and crooks.

Income inequality matters more on a day-to-day basis. Wealth matters more for political influence.

Whatever we, as prospective participants unaware of our specific features, would desire society to be like is what, morally speaking, we ought to institute.

We live in a world where economic positions - income and wealth - are very unevenly distributed, and this leads to the widespread persistence of poverty.

Large companies are very good at solving extremely complex problems in a globally optimal way.

The Bank and the media continue to propagate the story that the global elite wishes to be told: that the number of poor has declined by 24 percent in those 15 years [1990-2005].

The collective income of all these people - the bottom half - is less than three percent of global household income, and so there is a grotesque maldistribution of income and wealth.

What is really nice about the Health Impact Fund is that it is a win-win, something that without much cost to anyone makes a lot of people better off.

Domestic power structures are shaped in good part by global arrangements.

It is for the poor people's sake, above all, that we urgently need more unity and better organization and need to concentrate our reform efforts in order to really to achieve reforms, one by one.

Marriage is a long-lasting friendship.

Good to see you too, Otto." -Sydney Rose

My strength: My enemies, they keep me strong enough to face the worst - MB

Decorate your home. It gives the illusion that your life is more interesting than it really is.

I prefer leaving things to the market as much as possible.

Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths . . . ?

The danger of oppression is not just being oppressed, it's becoming an oppressor.

I really love laughing.

My father invested his money so securely in the banking business that he was never able to get any of it out again.

Acting is the work of two people - it's only possible when you have the complicity, the help, even the manipulation of a director.