Cornelius Vanderbilt — "The public be damned! I am working for my stockholders."
The public be damned! I am working for my stockholders.
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More from Cornelius Vanderbilt
"I believe in God and hard work."
"The only way to get rich is to think for yourself."
"I'm not a man of words, but of deeds."
"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."
"The only way to win is to never give up."
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.
Details
Reply to a reporter's question about public interest, though exact wording and context debated.
Date: 1882 (often cited as Vanderbilt, though sometimes attributed to William Henry Vanderbilt)
Power & LeadershipVerification
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