Top 50 David Rockefeller Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work.”

— David Rockefeller

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2. “If necessity is the mother of invention, discontent is the father of progress.”

— David Rockefeller

3. “We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis...”

— David Rockefeller

4. “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.”

— David Rockefeller

5. “This present window of opportunity, during which a truly peaceful and interdependent world order might be built, will not be open for too long – We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.”

— David Rockefeller

6. “Whatever you do, if you do it hard enough you’ll enjoy it. The important thing is to work and work hard.”

— David Rockefeller

7. “The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.”

— David Rockefeller

8. “The negative impact of population growth on all of our planetary ecosystems is becoming appallingly evident.”

— David Rockefeller

9. “I believe that government is the servant of the people and not their master.”

— David Rockefeller

10. “Money can add very much to one’s ability to lead a constructive life, not only pleasant for oneself, but, hopefully, beneficial to others.”

— David Rockefeller

11. “I am convinced that material things can contribute a lot to making one’s life pleasant, but, basically, if you do not have very good friends and relatives who matter to you, life will be really empty and sad and material things cease to be important.”

— David Rockefeller

12. “I am never angry, although sometimes distressed.”

— David Rockefeller

13. “I think that the best hope for peace and prosperity in the world is greater cooperation among nations, which in turn will be produced if both our governments and the people of our countries travel more and get to know each other better.”

— David Rockefeller

14. “My congratulations on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution.”

— David Rockefeller

15. “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.”

— David Rockefeller

16. “I think I am basically a happy person.”

— David Rockefeller

17. “Bilderberger Meeting: The world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government...”

— David Rockefeller

18. “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

19. “Only once in my life was I on the edge of incivility. I do not like to be unkind.”

— David Rockefeller

20. “Much corporate giving is charitable in nature rather than philanthropic.”

— David Rockefeller

21. “Populists and isolationists ignore the tangible benefits that have resulted from our active international role during the past half-century.”

— David Rockefeller

22. “A museum has to renew its collection to be alive, but that does not mean we give on important old works.”

— David Rockefeller

23. “I hope the Guggenheim plan will be revived.”

— David Rockefeller

24. “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.”

— David Rockefeller

25. “The attacks on the World Trade Center and the current economic recession, which is particularly powerful in New York City, have put a number of building plans on hold for the time being.”

— David Rockefeller

26. “I think of art as the highest level of creativity. To me, it is one of the greatest sources of enjoyment.”

— David Rockefeller

27. “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.”

— David Rockefeller

28. “The conventional notions of art have changed, and a lot of things done today are considered works of art that would have been rejected in the past.”

— David Rockefeller

29. “I am a passionate traveler, and from the time I was a child, travel formed me as much as my formal education.”

— David Rockefeller

30. “Courting Peggy McGrath provided me with a very pleasant diversion and eventually with the most important relationship of my life.”

— David Rockefeller

31. “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.”

— David Rockefeller

32. “Successful charitable fund-raising has much in common with managing a business: It requires leadership, persistence, and creativity.”

— David Rockefeller

33. “The Japanese banks are not having an easy time as they once had.”

— David Rockefeller

34. “I never kept a diary, but I wrote detailed notes of my travels.”

— David Rockefeller

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

— David Rockefeller

36. “They decided to establish a museum of modern art where works by contemporary artists would be shown. Mother was viewed as a very progressive person, and not everybody liked the paintings she bought.”

— David Rockefeller

37. “The Christian ethic played an essential part in my upbringing.”

— David Rockefeller

38. “MoMA is doubling its space, and I decided to raise the money for it.”

— David Rockefeller

39. “I do not like to be unkind.”

— David Rockefeller

40. “As children we recognized that we belonged to an unusual, even exceptional, family, but the effect was different on each of us.”

— David Rockefeller

41. “I suspect that many corporations have begun to understand that they have an important role to play in the lives of their communities, and that allocating funds to support local groups helps them discharge that function and also burnish their image.”

— David Rockefeller

42. “I learned more from my mother than from all the art historians and curators who have informed me about technical aspects of art history and art appreciation over the years.”

— David Rockefeller

43. “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.”

— David Rockefeller

44. “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.”

— David Rockefeller

45. “I can only say that I have had a wonderful life.”

— David Rockefeller

46. “Eventually, most people felt MoMA had filled a very important gap.”

— David Rockefeller

47. “My grandfather, along with Carnegie, was a pioneer in philanthropy, which my father then practiced on a very large scale.”

— David Rockefeller

48. “By a museum, I assume you mean an institution dedicated to the events of Sept. 11 and the aftermath. If that is done with sensitivity, I think it would be most appropriate.”

— David Rockefeller

49. “I owe much to mother. She had an expert’s understanding, but also approached art emotionally.”

— David Rockefeller

50. “Mother’s interest in contemporary American artists emerged during the 1920s.”

— David Rockefeller