David Rockefeller

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.

The conventional notions of art have changed, and a lot of things done today are considered works of art that would have been rejected in the past.

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.

I do not like to be unkind.

I think I am basically a happy person.

I suspect that many corporations have begun to understand that they have an important role to play in the lives of their communities, and that allocating funds to support local groups helps them discharge that function and also burnish their image.

If necessity is the mother of invention, discontent is the father of progress.

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.

When you have a lot of resources, the most important thing is to have had good parents and to have been brought up by people who gave one the proper values.

I think it’s sad when people make a lot of money and they want the biggest boat or the biggest car or the biggest plane.

We were afraid of attempts of kidnapping.

When I see something I like, I buy it, but I do not look for it madly.

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.

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.

I am the wealthiest man, not just in Europe, but in the whole world. I collect emotions. I am wealthy in that the people of Russia have twice entrusted me with the leadership of a great nation such as Russia – I believe that is my greatest wealth.

Much corporate giving is charitable in nature rather than philanthropic.

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

Someday I want to be rich. Some people get so rich they lose all respect for humanity. That’s how rich I want to be.

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.

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

Be not penny-wise. Riches have wings. Sometimes they fly away of themselves, and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.