With uncertainty in oil markets, a buildup of speculative pressures and the large U.S. current account deficit, there is a real possibility that Paulson's crisis-management skills will be tested.

It certainly was difficult to sell NAFTA because it's always difficult to sell open markets.

Blaming speculators as a response to financial crisis goes back at least to the Greeks. It's almost always the wrong response.

The dramatic modernization of the Asian economies ranks alongside the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution as one of the most important developments in economic history.

Global capital markets pose the same kinds of problems that jet planes do. They are faster, more comfortable, and they get you where you are going better. But the crashes are much more spectacular.

In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car.

All taxes discourage something. Why not discourage bad things like pollution rather than good things like working?

A good rule of thumb for many things in life holds that things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you thought they could.

The availability of private insurance provides tremendous insulation for millions of individuals

Most investors want to do today what they should have done yesterday.

The idea that we should be open to all ideas is very different from the supposition that all ideas are equally valid.

The truth, my friend, is an awesome thing, to be handled with wisdom and with courage denied to ordinary people. Most of us must make do with illusions. Or else -- or else we could not endure.

Lay the foundations for your future now. Try to do a little bit every day and let it slowly add up. Every bit of work you do for your future is worth it.

That lack of value sense would deprive a person from a protective instinct.

But time does not disclose its secrets to humankind, and the possible turned impossible.

It's nice to have the opportunity to play for so much money, but it's nicer to win it.

Do not simplify. Do not worry about failure. Failure is a badge of honour. It means you risked failure.

You can't undo yesterday, you can work on today, tomorrow, you will wonder how you screwed up 2 days in a row

Assume the best but hire paranoid people.

I want to be one of those people, be they writers, poets, musicians, who leaves clues for the next generation. The really good people leave clues that help feed the human race. That's my aspiration.

Respect my trendsetting abilities. Once that happens, everyone wins.