Cornelius Vanderbilt — "I don't like to be idle."
I don't like to be idle.
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More from Cornelius Vanderbilt
"I have no regrets."
"I'm too big a fellow to live in Staten Island. My name means something in Wall Street."
"I have never been afraid to challenge the status quo."
"I have always believed in myself."
"I will not let my money be used to perpetuate idleness."
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.