Quotes from Ron Chernow

John D. retained his mystic faith that God had given him money for mankind's benefit.

Several family members sought Rockefeller's help to withstand the storm.

Many southerners feared that the New Englanders were a rash, obstinate people, prone to extremism, and worried that an army led by a New England general might someday turn despotic and conquer the South. The appointment of George Washington would soothe such fears and form a perfect political compromise between North and South.

He was always careful to couch his decisions as suggestions or questions.

I observed that he spoke very little indeed, and always in a low and quiet voice.

To preserve their autonomy, they sequestered half their voting stock in the hands of five men eternally sworn to keep it free of Standard influence.

while he was always surrounded by people, Rockefeller had few, if any, real friends and was isolated by his wealth.

He became so skillful that he built roads without an engineer.

We made sure that we were right and had planned for every contingency before we went ahead.

If the sword of oppression be permitted to lop off one limb without opposition, reiterated strokes will soon dismember the whole body.

As Grant later confessed to his wife in frank exasperation, "You know I have an 'S' in my name and don't know what it stand[s] for.

From the outset, Pierpont's relationship with Jack differed from his own with Junius.

When pastor John Heyl Vincent dropped by to transmit his hope that Ulysses "might be preserved from all harm and restored to his family," Julia fairly burst out with a new fantasy: "Dear me! I hope he will get to be a major-general or something big!

Within two week's time, he saved several trust companies and a leading brokerage house, bailed out New York City, and rescued the Stock Exchange.

I never came into contact with any class of men so smart and able as they are in their business.

When he exhausted his list, he simply started over from the top and visited several firms two or three times.

There was now a self-perpetuating quality to his wealth.

As he watched people scheme and grovel for Rockefeller's fortune, it was hard to preserve his faith in human nature.

Oh no," Grant smirked. "If I had got him I'd let him go again; he will do us more good commanding you fellows."34 Grant and Buckner, both veterans who remembered Pillow from Mexico, shared a good laugh at this caustic remark. Grant liked to tell stories of how Pillow once dug a ditch on the wrong side of his breastworks or described himself as "cut down by grape shot" when a bullet grazed his foot.35 During

The issue is much more complicated than that, but there's no doubt that Rockefeller's achievement arose from the often tense interplay between the two opposing, deeply ingrained tendencies of his nature—his father's daring and his mother's prudence—yoked together under great pressure.

He craved the love of a father who seemed too remote and too self-absorbed to attend to his boyish needs.

About his nose, Pierpont could be more sensitive than he was about his trusts.

The 1907 panic would be the last time that bankers loomed so much larger than regulators in a crisis.

whereas Rockefeller brought a rational spirit to the business, and this counted among his greatest contributions.