Quotes About Ethics

The only one among them who wrestled a bit with their role—as the guys who had made a fortune betting against their own society—was Vincent Daniel. "Vinny, being from Queens, needs to see the dark side of everything," said Eisman. To

If everyone on Wall Street abided by the rule's spirit, the rule would have established a new fairness in the U.S. stock market.

If you're not interested in the thing, and if you're just in it for the money, then you're not really going to have a sense of achievement.

It was troubling to consider, he began, "an organism equipped with an affective and hormonal system not much different from that of the jungle rat being given the ability to destroy every living thing by pushing a few buttons." Given

Who do you work for? That question haunted salesmen. Whenever a trader screwed a customer and the salesman became upset, the trader would ask the salesman, "Who do you work for anyway?" The message was clear: You work for Salomon Brothers. You work for me. I pay your bonus at the end of the year. So just shut up, you geek.

How could anyone be so stupid as to trust a trader? The best thing I could do was pretend to others at Salomon that I had meant to screw the customer. People would respect that. That was called jamming. I had just jammed bonds, albeit unknowingly, for the first time. I had lost my innocence.

When he noticed that pro basketball stars were far less likely to be called for traveling than lesser players, he didn't just holler at the refs. He stopped watching basketball altogether; the injustice of it killed his interest in the sport.

it was the only time he'd done something just for the money, and that he'd never do something just for the money ever again.

A new trader could leap into a market and trade frantically inside it without adding anything of value to it.

As my last New Year's resolution, I had stopped selling people things I didn't think they should buy. For Lent, I had given up my New Year's resolution.

More praise for Liar's Poker Selected as one of BusinessWeek's

I recall that one of the first investment bankers I met taught me a poem. God gave you eyes, plagiarize. A

Here, in 2001, entered Goldman Sachs, which engaged in a series of apparently legal but nonetheless repellent deals designed to hide the Greek government's true level of indebtedness. For these trades Goldman Sachs—which, in effect, handed Greece a $1 billion loan—carved out a reported $300 million in fees.

Morgan Stanley wanted to be able to trade for itself in a way it could not trade for its customers; it just didn't want to seem as if it wanted to.

When they heard that Joel Leftwich, the guy Trump wanted to lead his USDA transition team, had been a lobbyist for PepsiCo, they brought in a mini-fridge stocked with Pepsis. That was just the way they were at the USDA. They didn't think: How the fuck can people paid to push sugary drinks on American kids be let anywhere near the federal department with the most influence on what American kids eat? Instead they thought: I hear he's a nice guy!

She's got manners, but what has she got in the way of morals?" "Oh," said Luker blithely, "she and I don't have any morals. We have to get along with a scruple or two." "I

Humans have been doin' awful things to each other throughout history. Humanity's not as great as you make it out to be. I do what needs to be done, and that's that. We're about to go to war, Earl. There ain't no humanity in war.

We don't want our politicians bending to the whims of whichever corporation has the money to pay them off.

There is less danger, gentlemen, in living according to a set of high moral principles than most politicians believe.

Power is neither good nor evil. It is the use one makes of it which is good or evil.

Who told you that the world was just?' Elric

I think I have always had a strong sense of justice, of fair play, of what is right and what is wrong.

Replacing the divot is "an exercise for the public good." It is also a reminder that "we are all one golfer." There would simply be no game if every golfer turned his back on the damage he did.

In a golf club everyone knows the player who does not replace his divot. One can guess how he leads the rest of his life.