John Jacob Astor Quotes

102 John Jacob Astor Quotes

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[As part of his will.] To the German Society of New York I give thirty thousand dollars on condition of their investing it in bond and mortgage, and applying it for the purpose of keeping an office and giving advice and information without charge to all emigrants arriving here, and for the purpose of protecting them against imposition.
John Jacob Astor

[One part of his will on the 4th of July 1836.] To my daughter Dorothea, wife of Walter Langdon, Esquire, I give and bequeath all my household furniture; also the use, during her life, of all my silver plate, my new service of plate excepted. Also, I give and bequeath to her for her life, the income of the following stocks, debt, and money: that is to say, one hundred thousand dollars of the debt of the city of New York, bearing five percent interest; five hundred shares of the capital stock of the Bank of America; one thousand shares of the capital stock of the Manhattan Company; twenty-five thousand dollars, deposited with the New-York Life Insurance and Trust Company, (for which I hold certificates;) all which income I devote expressly to her sole and separate use – to be at her own disposal when received by her, and not otherwise, and to be free from all claim, interest, or interference of his husband… Also, I devise to her the house and lot on Lafayette Place in the city of New-York, being twenty feet six inches wide, and one hundred and thirty-seven feet six inches deep, now occupied by her, to have and to hold the same during her natural life, free from and exclusive of any interest or interference of her husband, and to her sole and separate use.
John Jacob Astor

[To Charles Bristed part of his will on the 4th of July 1836.] Also, I give to him, on his attaining the age of twenty-five years, the income and interest of one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, to be set apart by my executors out of my good bonds and mortgages, to have and enjoy such income during his life. And as to the income of the real estate above devised to him for life, I devise the same to my executors in trust to receive the same and to apply it, or so much and part thereof as they may think fit, to the use of the said Charles Bristed, until he shall attain the age of twenty-five years.
John Jacob Astor

[Part of his will on the 4th of July 1836.] I appoint William B. Astor, James G. King, Washington Irving, James Gallatin, to be executors of this my will, and give such of them as shall act herein, and the survivors and survivor of them, the several powers, authority, and discretion herein granted.
John Jacob Astor

[Part of his will in the first codicil on the 19th of January 1838.] I give to my son, William B. Astor, one half of my residuary personal estate absolutely; and also the income of the other half, until he shall think fit to expend such other half in the improvement of my residuary estate…
John Jacob Astor

[On rolling in barrels that contained $55,000 in silver and being asked by his wife Mrs Astor what the barrels contained.] The fruit of our East India Pass.
John Jacob Astor

[To his granddaughter Emily Astor and her bridesmaid Julia Ward after listening to their singing one evening.] You are my singing birds.
John Jacob Astor

[On another occasion listening to a brilliant waltz.] I heard that at a fair in Switzerland years ago. The Swiss women were whirling about in their red petticoats.
John Jacob Astor

[On standing together with his son William B a short time after the completion of Astor House.] Well, William what do you think of it? [His son expressed his warm appreciation and admiration of this last achievement of his father’s.] William, it is yours. [A few days later the property was turned over to William Backhouse Astor, for ‘One Spanish milled dollar, and love and affection.’]
John Jacob Astor

[On being asked for a contribution to the campaign fund of Henry Clay when he ran for President for a third time.] I am not interested in these things now. Those gentlemen who are in business, and whose property depends on the issues of the election, ought to give. I am an old man. I haven’t anything to do with commerce, and it makes no difference to me what the Government does. I don’t make money any more. [‘Why, Mr Astor, you are like Alexander, when he wept because there were no more worlds to conquer. You have made all the money, and now there is no more money to make.’ – Fundraising committee member. Then Mr Astor chuckled with amusement and said] Very, good, that’s very good. Well, I’ll give you something. [He thereupon drew a check for fifteen hundred dollars, which, though it did not elect his old friend to the Presidency, still stood for a sign of the friendship between them.]
John Jacob Astor



[On being perhaps the first entrepreneur to diversity and to see] How one form of commerce could be linked with another to the advantage of both.
John Jacob Astor

Ach, mein friend! What was it like, the winter for you, eh?
John Jacob Astor

[On asking Sarah how his first son John Jacob was after the accident.] How is the boy? [‘Just the same Jacob.’ – Sarah Astor.]
John Jacob Astor

Dumkopf!
John Jacob Astor

[On not paying $500 for a ships chronometer but trying to get the ships captain to pay. Captain subsequently found another ship to captain and due to superior seamanship landed the ship with the tea cargo before Mr Astor’s ship had begun unloading. Costing him $70,000 due to sudden oversupply. After that he hired him back for future voyages.] You was right, Cowman. Seventy thousand dollars I lose for the chronometer.
John Jacob Astor

[On being congratulated by a member of the clergy upon the increased ability to do good which great wealth brought.] Ah, sir, but the disposition to do good does not always increase with the means.
John Jacob Astor

[On Astoria.] This country will see a chain of growing and prosperous cities straight from New York to Astoria, Oregon.
John Jacob Astor

[To the then president Thomas Jefferson and congress, urging a line of army posts, forty miles apart, from the western extremity of Lake Superior to the Pacific.] These forts or army posts will evolve into cities. From a fort you get a trading post, and from a trading post you will get a city.
John Jacob Astor

[On pointing to Thomas Jefferson the site, on his map, of the Falls of St. Anthony.] There you will have a fort some day, for wherever there is water-power, there will grow up mills for grinding grain and sawmills, as well. This place of power will have to be protected, and so you will have there a post which will eventually be replaced by a city.
John Jacob Astor

[On his loss of $1 million on the Astoria venture, one of his few large losses.] The plan was right, but my men were weak, that is all. The gateway to China will be from the northwest. My plans were correct. Time will vindicate my reasoning.
John Jacob Astor



[At an old age to his son William he asked sternly.] William, where do you expect to go when you die? [‘Why, sir, I always expected to go where the other people went.’ – William]
John Jacob Astor

[On the war of 1812.] But for that war, I should have been the richest man that ever lived.
John Jacob Astor


Bonus

I am not afraid of Jacob; he’ll get through the world. He has a clear head and every thing right behind the ears.
Valentine Jeune (Schoolmaster of John Jacob Astor)

[On Mr Astor.] He began his career, of course, on the narrowest scale; but he brought to the task a persevering industry, a rigid economy, and strict integrity. To these were added, an inspiring spirit that always looked upward; a genius, bold, fertile and expansive; a sagacity quick to grasp and convert every circumstance to its advantage, and a singular and never-wavering confidence of signal success.
Washington Irving

The spirit which John Jacob Astor showed has been the making of America... The first American promoters, while seeking personal benefit, were moved by considerations of loyalty and patriotism equalled by business men in no other country at any time.
Arthur Butler Hulbert

[On Mr Astor he had] Passed through every stage of mercantile life, from small toy-seller to respectable fur dealer, then to the immense China merchant, cracking his half million cargoes of teas as you would a bale of goods.
Stephen Girard

One of the ablest boldest and most successful operators that ever lived.
James Parton

[Sometime in early the 1840’s.] This old gentleman, with his $15 million, would give it all to have my strength and physical ability… His mind is good, his observations acute, and he seems to know everything that is going on. But the machinery is all broken up, and there are some people, no doubt, who think he has lived long enough.
Philip Hone

He added immensely to his riches by purchases of state stocks, bonds, and mortgages in the financial crisis of 1836-37. He was a willing purchaser of mortgages from needy holders at less than their face [value]; and when they become due, he foreclosed on them, and purchased the mortgaged property at the ruinous prices which ranged at the time.
New York Herald 31st of March 1848

A self-invented money-making machine.
New York Herald 31st of March 1848

[On his death in 1848.] For nearly forty years he has been characterized as perhaps the greatest merchant of this if not of any age – the Napoleon of commerce.
Hunt’s Merchant Magazine

[On his death in 1848.] In the art of prospering in business, he has had no equal. To get all that he could and to keep nearly all that he got – those were the laws of his being.
Harper’s Magazine

[On coming on deck after the Titanic hit an iceberg, later going down with the ship.] I asked for ice, but this is ridiculous.
John Jacob Astor IV



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