Top 175 Quotes & Sayings by Henry Paulson

India is a vibrant nation whose strength lies in its commitment to equal rights and to speech, religious and economic freedoms that enrich the lives of all citizens. India is not only the world's largest democracy; it is also a secular, pluralistic society committed to inclusive growth.

Payment systems are critically important for overall market stability. On a typical business day, U.S. payment and settlement systems settle transactions valued at over $13 trillion.

As we work to promote greater economic opportunity for the American people, we must always remember that the American economy is deeply integrated with the global economy. That brings challenges but even greater opportunities.

I always told people in the private sector, 'You can be the smartest person in the world, you can have the very best ideas, but if you can't sell them and you can't get other people to work with you, you're not going to succeed.'

When you have a big, ugly problem, there's never going to be a neat, elegant solution that is totally painless or without a cost.

If you've got a bazooka, and people know you've got it, you may not have to take it out.

China needs a currency that reflects underlying economic fundamentals.

My preference is for the Federal Reserve to be the systemic risk regulator, because the responsibility for identifying and limiting potential problems is a natural complement to its role in monetary policy.

In China, export lobbies have fought for policies that favor their interests and limit foreign competition.

U.S. exports to China have more than quintupled since China entered the WTO and have grown more quickly than imports. In fact, China is America's fastest-growing export market.

For decades, Indians have immigrated to the United States, joined our communities, and raised their families while maintaining their cultural heritage.

Indian-Americans are physicians, engineers, CEOs, professors, teachers, entrepreneurs. They are a vital part of the United States' economic and social fabric. Because of this long history, the bonds among our people and our cultures will remain strong.

The U.S. and China need to take steps - mostly individually, sometimes together - that will have the mutually beneficial effect of supporting and sustaining economic growth.

One of the most constant aspects of American life is change - and nowhere is it more evident than in our financial markets.

China saves too much, produces too much, sells too much to Americans and consumes too little.

I prefer to work at the policy level, on trying to fix flawed government policies.

Too often, we restrict trade that would create U.S. jobs and is in our national interest.

I never once considered that it was appropriate to put taxpayer money on the line in resolving Lehman Brothers.

When the economy is growing, there's a lot that can be done to deal with the deficit.

One of the things I enjoy the most is fishing.

I've been through periods of stress, turbulence in the market for over the course of my career, various times, and never in any of those other periods have we had the advantage of a strong economy underpinning the markets.

I've always said, 'I don't want to be irrelevant.'

My dad was somewhat of a naturalist and used to teach us about different birds and trees. So did a fifth grade teacher who made a lasting impact on me; to this day, I remember his lessons about counting the needles on pine trees, seeing if they are twisted or straight, and about checking the tips of oak leaves to see if they are pointed or lobed.

Regulation needs to catch up with innovation.

A Fed loan to Lehman Brothers would not have prevented a bankruptcy.

In just about every area of society, there's nothing more important than ethics.

Illiquid asset purchases are all about capital and encouraging private capital to come in.

We need a new tax system. We need entitlement reform. We need immigration reform. These are not easy things. But it is going to take our political system working better.

I grew up on a working farm. It was small, a hundred acres, but we had cows and pigs and chickens and sheep and a vegetable garden. I spent hours pulling weeds, hoeing, feeding the horses, cleaning out the stalls. My dad was a tough taskmaster. I always worked, but we also had fun.

We've had crooks from the beginning of time... it's always very interesting and troubling why good people do bad things.

The most pressing and significant problems in the global economy are unsustainable structural issues with regard to the E.U. - fiscal deficits and the structure of the E.U. itself.

Simply put, a Trump presidency is unthinkable.

Every global concern - economic, environmental or security-related - can be addressed more effectively when the U.S. and China work together.

I think all governments engage in intelligence gathering vis-a-vis other governments.

I was secretary of the Treasury in 2008. In that role, I had the privilege to work with many talented men and women in government and the private sector who labored to pull our nation back from the brink of disaster.

If the financial system collapses, it's really, really hard to put it back together again.

India is one of the world's largest and most peaceful states with advanced nuclear technologies and has been isolated from the rest of the world on nuclear issues.

As the Indian government has embraced greater economic openness, the creativity and expertise of the Indian workforce has been unleashed onto the world economic stage.

China and the U.S. are the two largest importers of oil. They are the two largest emitters of carbon.

Non-bank financial institutions provide credit that is essential to U.S. businesses and consumers.

A state-based regulatory system is quite burdensome. It allows price controls to create market distortions. It can hinder development of national products and can directly impact the competitiveness of U.S. insurers.

In the past, if a homeowner with a mortgage had a problem making the payment, often he'd get together with a lender and strike a deal, because foreclosures are very expensive to the lender and obviously not good for the homeowner and the community.

As Americans, we shouldn't like bailouts. Where I come from, if someone takes a risk and they're going to make the profit from that risk, they shouldn't have the taxpayer pay for the losses.

In my experience, the most effective professionals in business and government have the ability to get things done. They're trained to work with multiple stakeholders, to understand how to identify a problem, devise solutions, to compromise and work well with others.

There is a very real danger that financial regulation will become a wolf in sheep's clothing.

I believe that the root cause of every financial crisis, the root cause, is flawed government policies.

What I've said repeatedly is, 'I think the auto industry is a very important industry.'

Foreclosure is to no one's benefit. I've heard estimates that mortgage investors lose 40 to 50 percent on their investment if it goes into foreclosure.

It is the policy of the federal government to use all resources at its disposal to make our financial system stronger.

From the beginning of time, we've had financial crises. People always blame the banks and for good reason. When you look for the root causes, they're almost always failed government policies.

Our overriding goal in restructuring our financial architecture should be that taxpayers never again have to save a failing financial institution.

I'm a straightforward person. I like to be direct with people.

As I talk with the Chinese on currency, I encourage them to move much more quickly with opening up their capital markets to competition, because I don't believe the world is going to give them as much time as they would like.

The Chinese have done some extraordinary things in terms of the investments they've made in alternative sources of energy.

A single agency responsible for systemic risk would be accountable in a way that no regulator was in the run-up to the 2008 crisis. With access to all necessary information to monitor the markets, this regulator would have a better chance of identifying and limiting the impact of future speculative bubbles.

Economic growth and environmental protection are not at odds. They're opposite sides of the same coin if you're looking at longer-term prosperity.

I've never been antiregulation. I've always believed that raw, unregulated capitalism doesn't work.

When our markets work, people throughout our economy benefit - Americans seeking to buy a car or buy a home, families borrowing to pay for college, innovators borrowing on the strength of a good idea for a new product or technology, and businesses financing investments that create new jobs.

The cheapest and cleanest energy is the energy you don't use.

Anticompetitive practices hurt Chinese private firms nearly as much as foreign ones.