David Rockefeller

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

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.

They decided to establish a museum of modern art where works by contemporary artists would be shown. Mother was viewed as a very progressive person, and not everybody liked the paintings she bought.

I owe much to mother. She had an expert’s understanding, but also approached art emotionally.

Mother’s taste was eclectic and ranged from the ancient world to the contemporary from Europe to the U.S.

The attacks on the World Trade Center and the current economic recession, which is particularly powerful in New York City, have put a number of building plans on hold for the time being.

Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.

Never turn your back on enthusiasm.

I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected.

You need to face the pain and the fear and walk through the Grief.

Vision without execution is just hallucination.

You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. There’s nothing to that.

Coaching your wife is like trying to baptize a cat.

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

I can only say that I have had a wonderful life.

When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

What lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do.

There is an interconnectedness among members that bonds the family, much like mountain climbers who rope themselves together when climbing a mountain, so that if someone should slip or need support, he’s held up by the others until he regains his footing.

Maybe in the 90s or possibly in the next century people will look upon the 80s as the age of masturbation, when it was taken to the limit; that might be all that’s going on right now in a big way.

Little difficulties are made to swell until they fill our horizon while the real big blessings of life are dwindled down to nothing.

We have only started with the development of our country-we have not as yet, with all our talk of wonderful progress, done more than scratch the surface.