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Yanis Varoufakis Quits: 10 Quotes That Prove Greece's Ex-Finance Minister Is The Coolest Man In Europe

10 Quotes That Prove Yanis Varoufakis Is The Coolest Man In Finance
Aubrey Allegretti
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Greece's new Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis smiles after a ministry hand-over ceremony in Athens on January 28, 2015. Varoufakis said today he wants to see a pan-European deal to encourage growth. The new anti-austerity Syriza-led government wants 'a pan-European +New Deal+ that will lead Europe to a reboot', Varoufakis told journalist. AFP PHOTO / ARIS MESSINIS (Photo credit should read ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images)
ARIS MESSINIS via Getty Images

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis resigned on Monday, just hours after the country's resounding vote in a nation-wide referendum not to adopt stern loan repayment measures.

Varoufakis bowed out of the political spotlight with a parting snipe at Greece's lenders, saying: "I shall wear the creditors’ loathing with pride."

But the 54-year-old economist is no stranger to quick-witted quips, nor to flaunting an unorthodox fashion sense.

Below, we bring you the best from 'the coolest man in finance'.

Yanis Varoufakis: The coolest man in finance
T Is For Troika (And Terror)(01 of10)
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"What Brussels and the troika want today is for the yes [vote] to win so they could humiliate the Greeks. Why did they force us to close the banks? To instil fear in people. And spreading fear is called terrorism."
 (credit:ARIS MESSINIS via Getty Images)
Yanis Untucked(02 of10)
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"My proposal was that Greece should simply announce that it is defaulting ... and stick the finger to Germany and say 'you can now solve this problem by yourself'."
 (credit:ANGELOS TZORTZINIS via Getty Images)
Dapper In Downing Street(03 of10)
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"I am being treated as a strange bird because I talk macroeconomics… It’s astonishing to me that having a quasi-sophisticated discussion of economics is almost considered to be bad manners."
 (credit:JUSTIN TALLIS via Getty Images)
Yanis At Least Likes Some German-Made Things(04 of10)
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"A clueless political personnel, in denial of the systemic nature of the crisis, is pursuing policies akin to carpet-bombing the economy of proud European nations in order to save them."
 (credit:ANGELOS TZORTZINIS via Getty Images)
Casual In A Crisis(05 of10)
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"Biblical economics leave everybody blind and toothless."
 (credit:ANGELOS TZORTZINIS via Getty Images)
Zip It(06 of10)
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"Greece is absolutely, irreversibly, committed to staying in the eurozone. The problem is that once you're in, it goes just like the Eagle's song 'Hotel California' - you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."
 (credit:Pacific Press via Getty Images)
Mad About Marx(07 of10)
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"I know that I run the risk of, surreptitiously... indulging a feeling of having become 'agreeable' to the circles of 'polite society'. The sense of self-satisfaction from being feted by the high and mighty did begin, on occasion, to creep up on me. And what a non-radical, ugly, corruptive and corrosive sense it was!"
 (credit:ANGELOS TZORTZINIS via Getty Images)
Pontificating In Purple(08 of10)
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"Aesop told the famous parable of the ant who saved for the winter months and the grasshopper who did not […] Grasshoppers in every eurozone country, and beyond, caused this crisis. But now it's the ants - in Germany and in Greece - that are paying for it."
 (credit:Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Sharp And Sleek, Varoufakis On The Sinking Ship(09 of10)
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"[The Eurozone] resembles a fine riverboat that was launched on a still ocean in 2000. And then the first storm that hit it, in 2008, started creating serious structural problems for it. We started leaking water. And of course, the people in the third class, as in the Titanic, start feeling the drowning effects first."
 (credit:JOHN THYS via Getty Images)
Babbling In Burbery(10 of10)
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"FDR, 1936: 'They are unanimous in their hate for me; and I welcome their hatred.' A quotation close to my heart (& reality) these days."
 (credit:EMMANUEL DUNAND via Getty Images)
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