John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

The only question with wealth is what to do with it. It can be used for evil purposes or it can be an instrumentality for constructive social living.

John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American businessman and philanthropist, the son and heir of John D. Rockefeller and the first president of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Quotes

I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free.

• The American Beauty Rose can be produced in the splendor and fragrance which bring cheer to its beholder only by sacrificing the early buds which grow up around it. This is not an evil tendency in business. It is merely the working-out of a law of nature and a law of God.
  • Address to the students of Brown University, quoted in Ida Tarbell (1904) The History of the Standard Oil Company

• As for charity, it is injurious unless it helps the recipient become independent of it.
  • Interview with Samuel Johnson Woolf, quoted in Drawn from Life (1932)

• My mother and father raised but one question: Is it right, is it duty?
  • As quoted in The Rich man and the Kingdom : John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the Protestant establishment (1995) by Albert F. Schenkel, p. 13

John D. Rockefeller, Jr: A Portrait (1956)

Quotes of John D. Rockefeller from John D. Rockefeller, Jr: A Portrait (1956) by Raymond Blaine Fosdick

• I was born into it [wealth] and there was nothing I could do about it. It was there, like air or food or any other element. The only question with wealth is what to do with it. It can be used for evil purposes or it can be an instrumentality for constructive social living.

• I took responsibility early and, like my parents, I was serious.

I Believe

Radio broadcast appeal on behalf of the USO and the National War Fund, widely reprinted under the title, "I Believe"

• I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

• I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.

• I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master.

• I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.

• I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living and that economy is a prime requisite of a sound financial structure, whether in government, business or personal affairs.

• I believe that truth and justice are fundamental to an enduring social order.

• I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man's word should be as good as his bond; that character — not wealth or power or position — is of supreme worth.

• I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free.

• I believe in all-wise-and all-loving God, named by whatever name, and that the individuals highest fulfillment, greatest happiness, and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His will.

• I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate; that right can and will triumph over might.

External links

• Rockefeller Archive Center: Extended Biography
• Profile at NNDB
• Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: Patron of the modern
• "The Architect of Colonial Williamsburg: William Graves Perry", by Will Molineux An article from the Colonial Williamsburg Journal (2004), outlining Rockefeller's involvement