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 best way to make money is to buy when everyone else is selling."
"I have no time for politics."
"Ain't got time to be sick."
"I have always been a man of few words but many actions."
"The only way to make money is to take risks."
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.