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I was born into wealth and there was nothing I could do about it. It was there like food or air.

David Rockefeller

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David Rockefeller
Age: 101 †
Born: 1915
Born: June 12
Died: 2017
Died: March 20
Art Collector
Autobiographer
Banker
Businessperson
Entomologist
Statesperson
Writer
New York City
New York
Air
Wealth
Food
Born
Nothing
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More quotes by David Rockefeller

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A museum has to renew its collection to be alive, but that does not mean we give on important old works.
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Courting Peggy McGrath provided me with a very pleasant diversion and eventually with the most important relationship of my life.
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I can only say that I have had a wonderful life.
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You know, gentlemen, that I do not owe any personal income tax. But nevertheless, I send a small check, now and then, to the Internal Revenue Service out of the kindness of my heart.
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Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you're not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.
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Everything is in place - after 500 years - to build a true 'new world' in the Western Hemisphere... And what happens if we don't pass NAFTA? I truly don't think that 'criminal' would be too strong a word for rejecting NAFTA.
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I do not like to be unkind.
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The role of a museum of modern art is to make a good selection and identify what we believe to be the coming movements, and that requires taste.
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When you have a lot of resources, the most important thing is to have had good parents and to have been brought up by people who gave one the proper values.
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Philanthropy is involved with basic innovations that transform society, not simply maintaining the status quo or filling basic social needs that were formerly the province of the public sector.
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It is true that I am often startled and even angered and repulsed by the strange directions and provocative content of new forms that seem to pop up every few months.
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Whatever the price of the Chinese Revolution, it has obviously succeeded not only in producing more efficient and dedicated administration, but also in fostering high morale and community of purpose. The social experiment in China under Chairman Mao's leadership is one of the most important and successful in human history.
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The Japanese have a wonderful sense of design and a refinement in their art. They try to produce beautiful paintings with the minimum number of strokes.
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Successful charitable fund-raising has much in common with managing a business: It requires leadership, persistence, and creativity.
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Father was the eldest son and the heir apparent, and he set the standard for being a Rockefeller very high, so every achievement was taken for granted and perfection was the norm.
David Rockefeller
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As children we recognized that we belonged to an unusual, even exceptional, family, but the effect was different on each of us.
David Rockefeller
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Mother's interest in contemporary American artists emerged during the 1920s.
David Rockefeller
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If necessity is the mother of invention, discontent is the father of progress.
David Rockefeller
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The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.
David Rockefeller
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Populists and isolationists ignore the tangible benefits that have resulted from our active international role during the past half-century.
David Rockefeller