Musing bars on investment banking, from one analyst to another

On Senior Bankers

“Fair weather is a mask that the devil dons,
A disguise for the tempest that’s coming on.
But looking toward the west, I can always tell
By the tint of the sky and the strength of the swell
Who’s winning today—is it heaven or hell?”
— John Vanden

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On Analysts

“Ours not to make reply,
Ours not to reason why,
Ours but to do and die.”
— Lord Tennyson

“The idea of responsibility—their own, that of others—slowly eroded, replaced with gallows humor and low expectations.”
— Barack Obama

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On Associates

“The ego refuses to be distressed by the provocations of reality.”
— Sigmund Freud

“But to command, to cheque, to o’erbear such as are of better person than myself, I’ll make my heaven to dream, upon the crown.”
— William Shakespeare

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On Investment Banking

“Everything goes wrong in our world; no one knows his place, nor what he does, nor what he should do.”
— Voltaire

“Rattle me out of bed early, set me going, give me as short a time as you like to bolt my meals in, and keep me at it. There you are—with the Whole Duty of Man in a commercial country.”
— Charles Dickens

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On 3:00 A.M.

“Work, and not idleness, is the indispensable condition of happiness for every human being.”
— Leo Tolstoy

“Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world.
The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
— Albert Camus

“Tell me about the rabbits, George.”
— John Steinbeck

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On Me

“The only true and lasting meaning of the struggle for life lies in the individual— in his modest peculiarities, and in his right to these peculiarities.”
— Vasily Grossman