J. P. Morgan

John Pierpont Morgan (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier, banker, philanthropist and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time.

Sourced

• When asked what the stock market will do: It will fluctuate
  • Quoted by Benjamin Graham in The Intelligent Investor (Collins Business, revised 2003), p. 54; which gives as source:
    • Jean Strouse, Morgan: American Financier (Random House, 1999), p.11

• I owe the public nothing.
  • Quoted in the New York World (11 May 1901) during the Northern Pacific Corner. See Morgan: American Financier by Jean Strouse

• The first thing [in credit] is character … before money or anything else. Money cannot buy it.… A man I do not trust could not get money from me on all the bonds in Christendom. I think that is the fundamental basis of business.
  • Testimony to the Pujo Committee (1912)