Cornelius Vanderbilt — "I don't propose to be a damned fool."
I don't propose to be a damned fool.
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More from Cornelius Vanderbilt
"The only way to succeed is to keep pushing forward."
"The only way to succeed is to outwork everyone else."
"I don't think much of a man who is not willing to take a chance."
"I don't care a copper who makes the laws or how they are made. I've got the power, and I'll use it."
"I have made more money than any man in America."
About Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877)
American shipping and railroad magnate whose New York Central railroad and aggressive consolidation built the largest fortune in 19th-century America. Closely associated with John D. Rockefeller (later Gilded Age titan who learned the consolidation playbook). For an intellectual contrast, see Jay Gould, railroad speculator (1836-1892) — Vanderbilt built and ran railroads; Gould watered stock and manipulated markets. Their Erie Railroad rate-war and Gould's Black Friday (1869) gold-corner schemes were the public foil to Vanderbilt's quieter operational consolidation. The cleanest 'industrialist vs speculator' Gilded Age pairing.