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Quotes of the Day for 23 February 2004 - Banks

Mayer Amschel Bauer was born in the Jewish ghetto at Frankfurt am Main, Germany on this day in 1743, the son of a goldsmith. Plans that he would become a rabbi were changed after the untimely death of his father, and he went to work in a bank in Hanover, achieving great success. He returned to Frankfurt and bought his father's original business, which featured a sign with a red shield over the door, and changed his name to Rothschild ("rot schild" is German for "red shield"). His business thrived, mostly dealing in gold coins and medals, with a number of Germanic princes as his customers. He expanded by putting each of his five sons in charge of branches in Frankfurt, London, Paris, Vienna, and Naples and orchestrating their marriages in the interest of his dynasty. (The family business also operates two of the premier wineries in Bordeaux, and the conspiracy theorists like to think that the Rothschilds run most of the governments in Europe.) I only have one quote from the founder of that banking concern along with some other quotes on banks and finance.

What is the robbing of a bank compared to the founding of a bank?
     - Bertolt Brecht, 1898 - 1956

High finance isn't burglary or obtaining money by false pretenses, but rather a judicious selection from the best features of those fine arts.
     - Finley Peter Dunne, 1867 - 1936

Banking may well be a career from which no man really recovers.
     - John Kenneth Galbraith

I finally know what distinguishes man from other beasts: financial worries.
     - Jules Renard, 1864 - 1910

It requires a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune; and when you have got it, it requires ten times as much wit to keep it.
     - Mayer Amschel Rothschild, 1743 - 1812

A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.
     - Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963

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