[on his role as Secretary of the Treasury] I learned something valuable at the beginning, which is how fragile financial systems are, how connected they are to the economy, how hard it is to separate a trauma in a financial system from trauma in the economy, how hard it is to protect the average person from financial panics.. What it takes to protect people from a panic is really the opposite of what feels fair or just or effective. It's a paradoxical thing. It's perfectly understandable people wanted a measure of justice.

[on joining Barack Obama's cabinet] When your President asks you to serve, you have to say yes. You do. I tried to talk him out of it, and I wanted to make sure he understood what he was getting.