J P Morgan Quotes

100 J P Morgan Quotes (John Pierpont Morgan Quotes)

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You can’t pick cherries with your back to the tree.
J P Morgan

It was not really a question of price. It was a question of success.
J P Morgan

I don’t want a lawyer who tells me what I can’t do. I hire a lawyer to tell me how I can do what I want to do!
Well, I don’t know as I want a lawyer to tell me what I cannot do. I hire him to tell me how to do what I want to do.
I don’t want a lawyer who tells me what I can’t do. I hire a lawyer to tell me how I can do what I want.
J P Morgan

No problem can be solved until it is reduced to some simple form. The changing of a vague difficulty into a specific, concrete form is a very essential element in thinking.
J P Morgan

Any man who is bearish on the United States will go broke.
J P Morgan

Don’t sell American short.
J P Morgan

Never sell a bear on the United States.
J P Morgan

The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.
J P Morgan

Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther.
J P Morgan

When you expect things to happen – strangely enough – they do happen.
J P Morgan

When I have business on hand I think it is better to have it done quickly.
J P Morgan

[On his part of the profits of the underwriting syndicate for the United States Steel Corporation] I never made money as easy as that.
J P Morgan

I feel bound in honour when I reorganise a property and am morally responsible for its management, to protect it – and I generally do protect it.
J P Morgan

I was going aboard the yacht and found that I had nothing to light my cigar with; so I ventured to ask one of the men on the pier for a match. In return for the courtesy I handed him one of my cigars- which I think a good deal of. He accepted it promptly. ‘Thanks to you,’ he said, ‘I was just out of tobacco.’ Then he broke it into little bits and stuffed it into his pipe!
J P Morgan

[On negotiating with Art Dealers] I have heard enough. I’ll take this at the price you paid plus fifteen percent. How much did you pay?
J P Morgan

I am not a good judge of men. My first guess is sometimes right. My second never is.
J P Morgan

In a business proposition as great as this would you let a matter of $5,000,000 stand in the way of success?
J P Morgan

If you want time to pass quickly, just give a banker your note for 90 days.
J P Morgan

Any man who has to worry about the annual upkeep of his yacht can’t afford to own one.
J P Morgan

[Junius Spencer Morgan] Never sell America short.
J P Morgan

[On being accosted on the street and being asked ‘What’s the market going to do?’] It will fluctuate.
J P Morgan

It is my desire to be buried in the family burial place prepared by my father in Cedar Hill Cemetery, at Hartford, Connecticut, and I hereby direct that my body be there interred on the west of the monument and opposite the place where my father’s remains are interred. I wish that in all arrangements for my funeral the same general course by followed that was adopted in the case of my father, except that the service shall be held at St. George’s Church in the city of New York, with the Bishops of New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and the Rector of St. George’s officiating.
J P Morgan

You are rich when you can buy what you want…
J P Morgan

If you have to ask how much they cost, you can’t afford one.
J P Morgan

[On being asked ‘Is not commercial credit based primary upon money or property?’] No sir. The first thing is character. [‘Before money or property?’] Before money or anything else. Money cannot buy it… Because a man I do not trust could not get money from me on all the bonds in Christendom.
J P Morgan

I’ll go to jail rather than discuss my personal affairs.
J P Morgan

[Around 1864 on the United States] We are going some day to show ourselves to be the richest country in the world in natural resources. It will be necessary to go to work, and to work hard, to turn our resources into money, to pay the cost of the War, just as soon as it is ended.
J P Morgan

[To President Ramsey of the railroad on Jay Gould securing a block of shares in the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad causing the railroad to be through into bankruptcy and having Fisk named as receiver. Then ] I want a statement of your exact condition. I want a brief report which will tell me all the Gould and Fisk have done. I will examine these reports. Then I will let you know what I think about the matter.
J P Morgan

In my opinion this matter will have to be fought out in the courts. I feel certain that it can be successfully fought there. Shall I go ahead?
J P Morgan

[On a business friend not wanting to participate in his Atlantic Shipping Trust Syndicate] You can stay out, but do not think that you will share with us again.
J P Morgan

[On getting into a train station to catch a freight train for his friend the bishop to return to the city that night] Break in the door, get a big stone and smash it!
J P Morgan

[In 1876] The credit of the United States should be higher today than it ever has been. Within a few years we are going to resume specie payments.
J P Morgan

[To William H Vanderbilt on the New York Central Railway Corporation in 1876] How much stock, are you ready to sell?
J P Morgan

[On the presidency for the Union League Club] No, you must find some other candidate.
J P Morgan

[On whether he would accept election as a trustee to the Columbia University Board of Trustees] I should feel it an honour.
J P Morgan

[On continued negative British press on American Railroads eg ‘Freebooters of American Finance’] I made up my mind that something should be done.
J P Morgan

It being believed that sufficient influence could be brought to bear on Mr. Vanderbilt to induce him to supply a majority or more of the South Pennsylvania subscriptions, I made a trip to Philadelphia.
J P Morgan

That isn’t the way to spell my name, I want it corrected. My name is spelt Pierpont, not Pierrepont; and I should be pleased if that would be understood hereafter in this office.
J P Morgan

The purpose of this meeting is to cause the members of this association to no longer take the law into their own hands when they suspect they have been wronged, as has been too much the practice heretofore. This is not elsewhere customary in civilised communities, and no good reason exists why such a practice should continue among railroads.
J P Morgan

I cannot help but feel that it is a little harsh language for us to hold here, but I can stand it, I suppose, if the others can.
J P Morgan

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