Quotes About Legacy

What he said, what he thought, and what he felt, came from his mother, but what he did came from his father, with the addition of a great caution generated by early unpleasantness.

Despite the chronic friction between them, Big Bill continued to borrow money from his son and by the end of the century still had a $64,000 loan outstanding—more than $1 million in today's money.

the two J. P. Morgans even walked and talked alike.

Rockefeller was still held responsible for the sins of Standard Oil

Articles began to appear with titles like "The Human Side of John D. Rockefeller," as if its existence wasn't taken for granted.

Pierpont began to emerge from his father's shadow and take charge of major deals.

Though he rejected champagne as too expensive in his last days

One biographer has gone so far as to say of Rockefeller, "He was the best employer of his time, instituting hospitalization and retirement pensions.

In the end, nobody would do more than Alexander Hamilton to infuse life into this parchment and make it the working mandate of the American government.

Hamilton's crowded years as treasury secretary scarcely exhaust the epic story of his short life, which was stuffed with high drama. From his illegitimate birth on Nevis to his bloody downfall in Weehawken, Hamilton's life was so tumultuous that only an audacious novelist could have dreamed it up. He embodied an enduring archetype: the obscure immigrant who comes to America, re-creates himself, and succeeds despite a lack of proper birth and breeding.

BY the 1880s, as his health was fading

Her father was slowly dying of stomach cancer while she was writing her series, and this might have further embittered her toward Rockefeller

You must distribute it faster than it grows! If you do not, it will crush you and your children and your children's children.

Junior touted such philanthropies as the best way to advance the family's favorite causes.

Rockefeller established various taboos on the course, including that no business or charitable bequests should ever be discussed.

The Rockefellers could be playful on occasion.

Much of this last gift was routed to the University of Chicago.

Many thought he was being retained because his name was Rockefeller

Perhaps the true legacy of his boyhood was an equivocal one: he came to detest the tyranny embodied by the planters and their authoritarian rule, while also fearing the potential uprisings of the disaffected slaves. The twin specters of despotism and anarchy were to haunt him for the rest of his life.

the wealth of the Rothschilds consisted of the bankruptcy of nations.

Rockefeller knew that he now needed a larger and more efficient method for disposing of his fortune.

If Senior tried to shut out his critics, Junior was hypersensitive to insinuations about his father.

To give away the Rockefeller fortune with a clear conscience, he had to convince himself that it had been earned fairly.

As Rockefeller moved into retirement, his wealth was accumulating at an astonishing rate.