Quotes from Stephen A. Schwarzman

In 2014, Blackstone was the most profitable money manager in the world. I did not anticipate that.

What you find when you live in the United States, you live in the West, is that when somebody fails, it's never their fault. They always like to blame somebody other than themselves for a failure.

Some of the people in finance touch enormous parts of the economy.

Dodd-Frank has disproportionately burdened community banks, despite their having no role in the financial crisis.

The biggest mistake I've seen people make with their careers is, when they're good, after two or three years - and they happen to be smart - they announce that they're going out to start their own firm.

Doing a me-too business, because it's you - the only person who cares about that is you. The market doesn't care if it's you. The market is pretty much being served. You better have something that the world doesn't have, because even then, you might screw it up through your own ineptitude and inexperience.

Ironically, when a bunch of very smart people are sitting around a table for hours trying to figure out whether they should do something, that tends to not necessarily lead to the best results.

Don't go into something you actually don't know much about, in the hopes that you're going to get really financially successful and rewarded... even though people think you're, like, terrific.

Public service is a core value for people of my generation.

Washington, D.C., puts enormous burdens on people who, at the end of the day, are just humans.

To the extent that I can add value and make my country a better place, that's a good thing to do.

Every day should be a good day. People fool themselves that they'll be here forever.

I love things that cost nothing that have great results.

My biggest job really is to figure other people out. I need to understand what makes a person tick.

Being reasonably direct about what you're doing, being comfortable, is the best way to do things.

I've lived through periods of illiquidity before. Asset prices come down. The economy slows or even goes into recession. Then the cycle re-starts. We buy at lower prices with less leverage.

I didn't want to be a retailer. I hated to wait on people.

It's important that we educate Americans about how hedge funds and private equity play completely different roles.

Most youth are lacking critical life skills that make them employable and, most importantly, able to keep a job - things like teamwork, decision-making, and time management.

China on the world stage, in terms of interaction with the rest of the world, has been relatively very new due to the long isolation period until Deng Xiaoping's times.

I love houses. I'm not sure why.

We need to be able to identify and support young people who demonstrate interest and aptitude in entrepreneurship and business creation and give them tools to follow this path throughout their educational experience.

I didn't get to be successful by letting people hurt Blackstone or me.

The library helps lower- and middle-income people - immigrants - get their shot at the American dream.