Cornelius Vanderbilt — "I built my own fortune."
I built my own fortune.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Cornelius Vanderbilt
"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 been in business for fifty years and I have never seen a man who was afraid to lose his money who made any."
"I'll have more than Astor, by Christ!"
"I have always been a fighter."
"Any man who is a man can do what he wants with his own."
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.