Cornelius Vanderbilt Quotes

“A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.”

“All you have to do is attend to your own business, then go ahead.”

“Be assured those will be thy worst enemies, not to whom thou hast done evil, but who have done evil to thee. And those will be thy best friends, not to whom thou hast done good, but who have done good to thee.”

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”

“Gentlemen: You have undertaken to cheat me. I will not sue you because the law takes too long. I will ruin you.”

“Got to look out for yourself. Nobody else ain’t going to do it.”

“Got to spend some money, if you want to make anything. Can’t run a ferry that won’t run.”

“I am not afraid of my enemies, but by God, you must look out when you get among your friends.”

“I don't care half so much about making money as I do about making my point, and coming out ahead.”

“I guess I’ve built a hundred steamships and steamboats. I never paid a dollar of insurance. Good vessels and good masters – that’s the best kind of insurance. Why should I pay somebody else to carry my risks?”

“I have always served the public to the best of my ability. Why? Because, like every other man, it is to my interest to do so.”

“I have been insane on the subject of money making all my life.”

“I just know I could make me a heap of money.”

“I’ve never found time to indulge more than a single ambition.”

“If a fellow’s got guts he can always win.”

“If I had learned education I would not have had time to learn anything else.”

“If you don’t have competition, you don’t have competitors to skin.”

“It is not according to my mode of doing things, to bring a suit against a man that I have the power in my own hands to punish.”

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

“Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness.”

“My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.”

“My system of railroading is to take care of it just as careful as I would of my own household affairs, handle it just as though it was all mine; and take good care of its income; that is my aim, you know, and give that to the stockholders.”

“Never be a minion, always be an owner.”

“Never tell anyone what you are going to do till you have done it.”

“Pay ready money for everything you buy, and never sell anything you don’t own.”

“The more of it (money) one has the more one wants.”

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”

“There ain’t nothing to it, except work and giving folks what they want.”

“There is no friendship in trade.”

“Tricks ain’t good business.”