David Rubenstein Quotations

What do most people say on their deathbed? They don't say, 'I wish I'd made more money.' What they say is, 'I wish I'd spent more time with my family and done more for society or my community.

The world is a complicated place, and there's a lot of division between people. The performing arts tend to unify people in a way nothing else does.

As the baby boomers like me are retiring and getting ready to retire, they will spend whatever it takes - and theyre the wealthiest generation in our country - to make themselves live an enjoyable life in their retirement years.

I'm blessed by the fact I only need five hours of sleep on a daily basis. I do tend to regard Saturday and Sunday as work days.

Moneymaking was never anything to me. I was happy never making money; I just was happy doing things I liked. But I fell into the money thing. I now don't feel guilty about it, but I am determined to give away the bulk of it and enjoy doing it.

All I'm doing is I'm filling out my tax returns - or my accountants are, and I'm paying whatever I'm supposed to pay, though I'm giving away a large amount of the money and that probably lowers my tax rate because I'm giving away so much money. But change the law, but don't blame me for the law. I'm not writing the law. I didn't write the law.

I realised how rich I had become and I asked myself, 'Do I really want to be the richest person in the cemetery?

I'm on a lot of nonprofit boards, but if I didn't enjoy it I wouldn't do it. I haven't yet done anything that's transformational in philanthropy. But I hope at some point to target two or three causes or organizations and really make transformational gifts.

I am involved in a lot of nonprofits. And when I reached the ripe old age of 60, I wanted to provide leadership to some I had been involved in.

Anybody who gives away money is mostly looking at things where they think they can make a difference. I'm trying to help people who helped me, educational institutions that helped me with scholarships, or organizations that were very useful to me in growing up.

I give away about 50 percent of my income, so my, you know, desire to give back to the country is pretty strong and I intend to give away a lot more. I've signed the giving pledge with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, and I intend to give away the bulk of my money.

I think it's a little unfair for people to say you're not paying your fair share of taxes. I'm paying what I'm supposed to pay. Change the law, and I'll pay what I'm supposed to pay.

It's clear to me when you do private equity well, you're making companies more efficient and helping them grow and become more profitable. That success means our investors - such as public pension funds - benefit, which contributes to the economic wealth of society.

Obama had reached out to the business community, they just haven't liked all of his decisions and some of his rhetoric. But generally, I think the administration is quite open and accessible.

You can only do three things with your money. You can spend it. You can invest it. Or you can give it away. And if you invest it, you're really just getting more money to give away or buy something. How many things can you buy? So I don't really think there's a lot of choices.

For me, few things are more compelling than watching a great opera.

I regard food as fuel. I am not a brunch person.

My work life is intense. But I love what I do.

People used to think that private equity was basically just a compensation scheme, but it is much more about making companies more efficient.

When I worked in the White House for President Carter, we tried to do comprehensive tax reform and we made some progress, and other presidents have as well.

I don't really try to get involved politically by giving money to politicians or by saying I'm a Democrat or Republican. Right now, I just view myself as an American.

I've given some money to the scholarships in the District of Columbia, to the best students in D.C... many of the students have written me letters telling me they could not have afforded to go to college without the scholarship and money I've given them.

Probably in 2035 we will pass that mantle on to China. It will be the biggest economy in the world, and it will go way past us and way past India. Given the growth, the size, the opportunities, I don't think there's any other place in the world that can match it.

My father worked in a post office and never made probably more than $8,000 a year as an employee of the post office, so when people can rise up from very modest circumstances and do well economically, I think that's a good thing about America, and we should encourage that kind of activity.

Do not always say no. If satisfied with the seat in place and not reckless, the next 20 years you will still sit there alone

I really hope that the philanthropy movement is seen not just as wealthy people giving money away but wealthy people giving away their time, their energy and their ideas.

Sometimes the best decisions in life are on the spur of the moment. So I generally try to do what I think is right. And sometimes I make mistakes.

Persist - don't take no for an answer. If you're happy to sit at your desk and not take any risk, you'll be sitting at your desk for the next 20 years.

Of course Ken Starr was the leader of the impeachment movement against Bill Clinton and we are not particularly thrilled about him coming. However, we want to hear what he has to say.

My father worked in a post office and never made probably more than $8,000 a year as an employee of the post office, so when people can rise up from very modest circumstances and do well economically, I think that's a good thing about America, and we should encourage that kind of activity.

I wouldn't be surprised if returns came down eventually but I don't know what would be the precipitating factor.

It is obviously frothy but I have not seen anything that I think will cause a gigantic crash in the near future.

I think that we have a good chance to still buy it.

Last spring at our general body meeting we took a poll of 50 students and Carville was the top choice of the people we put up for consideration. We wanted someone who was successful, popular, dynamic and engaging, and he fits the bill on all of those.

We intend to be much more active in the wind, power, solar energy, biomass and geothermal areas.

Europe is more attractive than the U.S. and Asia, where there are fewer opportunities for restructuring.

Right now we're operating as if the music's not going to stop playing and the music is going to stop. I am more concerned about this than any other issue.

The business of New Orleans is tourism, and New Orleans has got to get back to business. There's all this talk about bringing people back to New Orleans, but without tourism there won't be any jobs for them to come home to.

This is an incredible success if you look at the things we got out of it. People seeing who we are and what we're about.

This has been a golden age for our industry but nothing continues to be golden forever.

This may be the most profitable private equity deal of all time.

There is too much money at stake. At some point, somebody will blink and work out a compromise. If not, there will be plenty of competitors to Blackberry to fill the lacuna.

It might be easy to buy into these ... when things are going good. I worry these deals don't look so smart when economies turn down.

German political leaders and business leaders should encourage more German private equity firms to get started -- don't wait for the Americans to show up but support and encourage Germans to start their own funds and to do the same kind of things that the Americans are doing.