David Rockefeller

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.

MoMA is doubling its space, and I decided to raise the money for it.

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.

Money can add very much to one’s ability to lead a constructive life, not only pleasant for oneself, but, hopefully, beneficial to others.

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

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

I learned another thing from the hurt my cousin gave me – never to give that kind of hurt to anyone else. My revenge was to change a bad feeling into a good one. If I’m working with you and I sense you’re feeling a little insecure, I try to make you feel great. That’s how I get rid of my old hurt. If I don’t do that, my hurt grows and makes me mean and vengeful. But if hurt can change to kindness – that’s something Mama showed me – the world becomes a little less cruel.

The best thing about having a sister was that I always had a friend.

I’m going to let people know that it’s cool to have a child and be young and still be a good mom. It’s really tough, but I’m doing it.

Our brothers and sisters are there with us from the dawn of our personal stories to the inevitable dusk.

My father was a successful real estate developer, and he was a very tough man but a good man. My father would always praise me. He always thought I was the smartest person.

I’ve known people that was a part of a family and always feel that the family liked everyone else but them. That hurts, and that’s as deep a hurt as you can possibly get. I’ve known people that would have problems with their love life. This is kind of how blues began – out of feeling misused, mistreated. Feeling like they had nobody to turn to. Blues don’t necessarily have to be sung by a person that came from Mississippi as I did, because there are people having problems all over the world.

Between a man and his wife nothing ought to rule but love. Authority is for children and servants, yet not without sweetness.

Having lots of siblings is like having built-in best friends.

My most important title is “mom-in-chief”. My daughters are still the heart of my heart and the centre of my world.

I am convinced that the norm in Russia should become a family with three children.

My son has a big Christmas problem – what do you buy for a father who has everything and you’re using it?

I am lucky because my family are comfortably off. My father has his own glass business.

I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.

My mother’s a psychologist, my stepfather’s a psychologist, my stepmother is a therapist and my dad’s a lawyer. So it was all prominent in my life. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t know someone on some form of prescription medicine.

You have to love your children unselfishly. That is hard. But it is the only way.