Cornelius Vanderbilt Quotes
115 Cornelius Vanderbilt Quotes
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[On moving to New York.] Won’t do the youngsters no harm. Do them good, maybe. Sharpen their wits. Can’t afford to raise a parcel of farmers.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
If a man don’t make his pile while he’s got his strength he’s a goner. Here I be, thirty-six, and a parcel of kids on my hands, and God only knows how much longer I got my health. If I don’t clean up quick, Sophy, I don’t clean up at all.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
A fellow as busy as I be is lucky if he can stop long enough to cram his belly.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[At the age of 36 on moving to New York with $30,000.] I reckon I can get home oftener now you’ll be in the city. I don’t aim to run a boat, myself. I’m going to hire captains, and use my time to work up business for them.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[At the age of 36.] I’ll have more than Astor, by Christ!
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[To one of his children saying to him at the age of 36 after he had asked them if they wanted to see the engine. ‘Oh, Pa! Can we, honest, Pa? Pa, can we steer? Say, Pa, Billy says he can run an engine.’ – Vanderbilt children.] Does, does he? Bill, I guess you’re one of them fellows who thinks he can do almost anything, hey?
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[To one of his children.] Hey, Peter, I want you to get Andy and take them boxes and stuff over to Stone Street. Here’s a shilling a piece for you, and I’ll grind your heads together if you keep me waiting.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[On his wife saying about Aaron Burr. ‘He looks dreadful lonesome, Cornelius.’ – Sophia.] If he’s lonesome it’s his own fault. A fellow gets his chance. He can’t ask no more.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[On their new house in New York when he was 36 years old.] Get up, youngsters. Don’t be afraid of the horses. This is Stone Street – and that’s our house down there aways. [‘That little place, Pa? Aw, Pa, their ain’t no grass. Pa, where do we play? Pa, can we all get into it?’ – Vanderbilt children.]
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Never can tell what’ll please youngsters. Complaining already, they be. Just because they ain’t going to live in a tavern – in the country!
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[On going head to head with the strongly established firm of Robert L. Stevens & Son who had vision, engineering ability and ample capital. (His strategy was to go head to head with existing lines with the objective that his opponent must either buy him out or sell out to him.)] I can stand any trouble they can make for me. [‘You haven’t got enough money to fight the Stevenses, Captain Vanderbilt.’ – One of his hearers.] Ain’t, hey? What I ain’t got Gibbons has. [‘Do you mean to say that Mr Gibbons is backing you?’ – Friend of Stevenses.] If I ain’t got enough money, I guess Gibbons has. [The Stevenses did surrender after he kept cutting shipping rates. ‘There’s no sense in fighting a madman. We’ll quit rather than lose a fortune in this absurd rate-cutting.’ – Stevenses.]
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[In around 1833. To a man who wanted him to buy stock in the recently incorporated Harlem Railroad when he operated just in the steamboat business.] No, sirree. I ain’t got nothing against you railroad fellows, but I’d be a damned fool to sink my money into a business that sets out to compete with steamboats. You can have my good wishes, but that’s all.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[On being involved in the first serious railroad accident in October 1833 when several railroad cars were thrown off a thirty foot embankment of the Amboy Railroad in New Jersey breaking several of his ribs and puncturing one of his lungs.] Get the doctor. Pretty bad – but I can – fool ‘em yet.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[After the railroad accident on his mother saying ‘Son, you want to remember you ain’t got but the one life, and if you up and bust yourself, there’s a sight of things you might get to do that you won’t.’ – Phebe Hand.] Huh! If I don’t get outside damned quick you’ll all be in the poorhouse and me in jail. Gimme my razor, Sophie – and them clothes you hid on me. I tell you, I can’t afford to be sick no longer.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[‘I been wondering how you’d like to build on Staten Island. There’s enough room on the farm. You Ma, she’d give you the land.’ – Sophia.] Building costs money. [‘So does paying rent.’ – Sophia.]
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[On some of his customers refusing to notice him outside of business hours.] Damn them. I’m good enough to carry their goods and help swing their deals. But not one of them ever says: ‘Stop in on your way uptown, Vanderbilt and have a snort of licker.’ Dudes, lilly-livered dudes! I’m as good as they be…
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Going to build, Ma. Want that lot you always called mine, over there in the Northeastern corner on the rise toward Tompkinsville. [‘Well, now, Cornelius. Chickens come home to roost, and so do Vanderbilts.’ – Phebe Hand.] And say, Ma! Sophia and the children come over and pack in with you while I’m building? [‘Course!’ – Phebe Hand.]
Cornelius Vanderbilt
I ain’t had time to learn. I guess I never will.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[On his second called ‘Cornelius’ who was a gambler at gaming tables.] I’d give one hundred dollars if he’d never been named Cornelius. Here I go, and make a name standing for something, and HE comes after me!
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[On later wanting to move back to New York from his house on Staten Island.] I’m too big a fellow to live in Staten Island. My name means something in Wall Street.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Got to look out of yourself… Nobody else ain’t going to do it.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[‘Sounds too easy. There never was such a thing as a canal between two oceans, so it must be hard to make. I can see mountains all through this country, and they look to be high ones…’ – Phebe Hand.] No more difficult to build a canal than a railroad, Ma… But I ain’t aiming to bust myself just to give jobs to a few thousand Greasers… I’m starting slow. [That’s a real idea son. That even a stupid, old woman like me can see. But your canal – I ain’t so sure.’ – Phebe Hand.]
Cornelius Vanderbilt
I’m going to make folks sit up, and take notice. Before I get through my name’s going to stand for something. [‘It appears like I’m the only person can keep you from making a fool out of yourself once in a while. And if you ask my advice, don’t you talk too brash about that Canal. Some folks might get to think you didn’t have your two feet fair on the ground.’ – Phebe Hand.] I ain’t talking much to anyone. This is just between you and me.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
The best way to beat ‘em out is to say nothing and jump quick.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
As if I’d go and do anything without a second load to my gun!
Cornelius Vanderbilt
I ain’t got time for dyspepsia. Nor heart trouble. Nor family. I got a h*ll of a job to chew off.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[In 1853. to E. H. Carmick.] Who’s the second –richest fellow in the country? I suppose Astor comes first. [‘Why, Stephen Whitney I guess.’ – E. H. Carmick.] Huh. How much has he got? ‘About seven million, Commodore.’ – E. H. Carmick.] H*ll. Whitney will have to get more than that to be second richest.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[In 1853 to Jake Van Pelt.] Jake, I got $11,000,000 invested better than any other $11,000,000 in the whole U.S. It’s worth twenty-five percent a year, and no risk.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[To his mother – Phebe Hand.] Not felling so good, Ma? [‘I’m eight-five, son. Been living on borrowed time fifteen years. But don’t you talk. You’re fifty-nine, yourself.’ – Phebe Hand.]
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[At the age of 59.] I’m going to show everyone what the name Cornelius Vanderbilt means. Yes, and I’m going to show all them stuck-up Englishmen in London the power I’ve got. I tell you, Ma, my name means something right now; but it’s going to mean a lot more. I’m just beginning.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Years don’t matter much…
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Ma. I’m the second-richest fellow in the country. Ain’t nobody but Astor got more – and his old man left it to him.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[At the age of 59.] I’m second-richest Ma. You can’t get away from that. And as for power…
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[Three months before his mother Phebe Hand passed away. I always was proud of you.’ – Phebe Hand.] I’m awful glad Ma.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
If it takes my last dollar, I’m going to ruin that cheap tin soldier in Nicaragua, and get my own back. You watch me!
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[In March 1858.] I got the transit, and I got the ships to hook up with it. What’s she worth to you, if I leaver her be, hey?
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[On a price in March 1858.] Forty thousand dollars a month… Take it or leave it. She’ll never go down, but she may go up.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[In 1859 on getting out of the steamship business one reason being the introduction of Internal Revenue tax of two percent on the hulls of vessels and of three percent (later five percent) on engines. ‘What’s this I hear you ain’t going to run steamships anymore, Cornelius?’ - Sophia] There ain’t no sense in steamships. [‘Why, honey, you made a heap of money.’ – Sophia.] And I don’t aim to lose what I made. I’m selling my boats to Allen & Garrison. Going to give me $3,000,000 cash for them – except the ‘Vanderbilt’.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
I guess I’ve built a hundred steamships and steamboats. Never lost one of them while I owned her – barring the old ‘Andrew Jackson’ that blew up under Jake on the river. And I never paid a dollar of insurance, neither. Good vessels and good masters – that’s the best kind of insurance. Why should I pay somebody else to carry my risks?
Cornelius Vanderbilt
[In 1859 on selling out of the steamboat business. ‘What are you going to do now Cornelius?’ – Sophia.] I guess I’ll try railroading.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
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