Quotes from Ron Chernow

and no real warmth existed between the two

A frugal man, John D. followed his accustomed practice of keeping the furnishings, even if the style in this case diverged ludicrously from his own.

I find I already thirst for knowledge about the business.

As a team, they were unbeatable and far more than the sum of their parts.

In the last analysis, the durable bond formed between Hamilton and Washington during the Revolution was based less on personal intimacy than on shared experiences of danger and despair and common hopes for America's future

As mudanças na condição humana são incertas e frequentes. Muitos aos quais a fortuna concedeu favores podem descobrir que, no passado, as condições de sua família nada tinham de prósperas; e muitos que hoje estão na obscuridade procedem de ancestrais afortunados e nobres.

In a similar vein, Rockefeller was concerned that if he advertised his own wealth through fancy houses, he might attract investors into the refining business and only worsen the excess capacity problem.

When they didn't flinch, Rockefeller launched an all-out attack.

The only thing removed by Rockefeller were the worn carpets, which he donated to the needy through a local church.

Hamilton always expressed himself frankly, no matter what the consequences.

Having missed a carefree boyhood, he seemed to want to compensate in his later years

What God had taken away, it seems, could never be perfectly restored.

At this point, Gates decided to wipe out Biggar's influence forever.

Hamilton did not know it, but he just wrote himself out of poverty.

By the time the three Americans showed up in Paris, Napoleon had crushed the Austrian army in Italy. Then, in early September, the Directory staged a veritable coup d'état, arresting and deporting scores of deputies and shutting down more than forty newspapers in a wholesale purge of moderate elements.

In January 1803, a grand jury in Columbia County, New York, indicted Harry Croswell for seditious libel against President Jefferson.

He lay bedridden at a nearby farm when Washington decided to recross the Delaware on Christmas night and pounce on the besotted Hessians drowsing at Trenton.

Yet Rockefeller didn't apply this pressure lightly and preferred patience and reason—if possible—to terror.

With Standard Oil moving its headquarters to New York, the neighborhood was becoming a colony of company directors.

Before Rockefeller's hair fell out, people noted the contrast between him and his often sickly wife.

rancor ushered in a golden age of literary assassination in American politics. No etiquette had yet evolved to define the legitimate boundaries of dissent.

On April 30, 1781, Hamilton sent a marathon letter to Morris—it runs to thirty-one printed pages—that set forth a full-fledged system for shoring up American credit and creating a national bank.

that favored stability over innovation, predictability over experimentation

Already contemplating the future, Rockefeller wanted to be surrounded by trustworthy people who could inspire confidence in customers and bankers alike.