Did J.P. Morgan Boast About His Work Ethic?

John Pierpont Morgan was arguably the most powerful private citizen in American history, personally bailing out the U.S. government during the 1895 gold crisis and organizing the rescue of the financial system during the 1907 Panic. Biographies paint a picture of a man who worked in intense bursts rather than steadily -- he took long European vacations and spent considerable time on his yacht and art collection. This quote about doing 'a tremendous lot of work in a short time if I want to' actually aligns well with contemporary descriptions of his working style. It appears in some biographies as an attributed remark, but the chain of attribution is murky. Morgan was famously terse with the press (his most verified quote might be 'I owe the public nothing'), and anecdotes about him multiplied after his death in 1913. Without a letter or interview transcript, the quote remains in the category of plausible but unverified.