"Marriage is a lot of things - a source of love, security, the joy of children, but it's also an interpersonal battlefield, and it's not hard to see why: Take two disparate people, toss them together in often-confined quarters, add the stresses of money and kids - now lather, rinse, repeat for the rest of your natural life. What could go wrong?"

"Credit or debit cards, for starters, are nothing short of shoppers' Novocain. Even in the age of digital purchases and virtual money, we still attach a special value to dirty paper with pictures of presidents on it. Handing some of that to a cashier simply hurts more than handing over a little sliver of plastic."

"Learning to speak was the most remarkable thing you ever did."

"There are a lot of obstacles in the way of our understanding animal intelligence - not the least being that we can't even agree whether nonhuman species are conscious. We accept that chimps and dolphins experience awareness we like to think dogs and cats do. But what about mice and newts? What about a fly? Is anything going on there at all?"

"Is it not odd that the only generous person I ever knew, who had money to be generous with, should be a stockbroker."

"Presidential leadership needn't always cost money. Look for low- and no-cost options. They can be surprisingly effective."

"Opposites may attract, but I wouldn't put my money on a relationship of financial opposites."

"Money without brains is always dangerous."