David Rockefeller

One cannot expect to coast along and rise automatically to the top, no matter what friends you may have in the company. There may have been a time when, in large corporations, a person could rise simply because he had a stock interest or because he had friends in top management. That’s not true today. Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.

Father was the eldest son and the heir apparent, and he set the standard for being a Rockefeller very high, so every achievement was taken for granted and perfection was the norm.

Mother’s interest in contemporary American artists emerged during the 1920s.

I am convinced that material things can contribute a lot to making one’s life pleasant, but, basically, if you do not have very good friends and relatives who matter to you, life will be really empty and sad and material things cease to be important.

Only once in my life was I on the edge of incivility.

I hope the Guggenheim plan will be revived.

Wealth – any income that is at least one hundred dollars more a year than the income of one’s wife’s sister’s husband.

I am convinced that material things can contribute a lot to making one’s life pleasant, but, basically, if you do not have very good friends and relatives who matter to you, life will be really empty and sad and material things cease to be important.

90% of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.

The only wealth I have to give is not material and if you need much more than that, I’m not available.

You know, gentlemen, that I do not owe any personal income tax. But nevertheless, I send a small check, now and then, to the Internal Revenue Service out of the kindness of my heart.

We were afraid of attempts of kidnapping.

He is richest who is content with the least.

very day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work.

Money can add very much to one’s ability to lead a constructive life, not only pleasant for oneself, but, hopefully, beneficial to others.

No man’s fortune can be an end worthy of his being.

Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn’t enough and you have to go and get shot or something.

We went to theatres and museums with a crowd of bodyguards.

I would be a billionaire if I was looking to be a selfish boss. That’s not me.

Philanthropy is involved with basic innovations that transform society, not simply maintaining the status quo or filling basic social needs that were formerly the province of the public sector.

Abramovich’s got six yachts which are just gigantic and you think, ‘What a waste of money. He could transform so many people’s lives if he put that money to good use.