Quotes by David Rockefeller

• I believe that government is the servant of the people and not their master.
• The Christian ethic played an essential part in my upbringing.
• 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.
• The Japanese banks are not having an easy time as they once had.
• A museum has to renew its collection to be alive, but that does not mean we give on important old works.
• As children we recognized that we belonged to an unusual, even exceptional, family, but the effect was different on each of us.
• 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.
• Eventually, most people felt MoMA had filled a very important gap.
• 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.
• Money can add very much to one's ability to lead a constructive life, not only pleasant for oneself, but, hopefully, beneficial to others.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• When I see something I like, I buy it, but I do not look for it madly.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Only once in my life was I on the edge of incivility.
• My grandfather, along with Carnegie, was a pioneer in philanthropy, which my father then practiced on a very large scale.
• Much corporate giving is charitable in nature rather than philanthropic.
• Mother's interest in contemporary American artists emerged during the 1920s.
• I owe much to mother. She had an expert's understanding, but also approached art emotionally.
• I am a passionate traveler, and from the time I was a child, travel formed me as much as my formal education.
• I can only say that I have had a wonderful life.
• I do not like to be unkind.
• I hope the Guggenheim plan will be revived.
• Mother's taste was eclectic and ranged from the ancient world to the contemporary from Europe to the U.S.
• I never kept a diary, but I wrote detailed notes of my travels.
• 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.
• I think I am basically a happy person.
• I think of art as the highest level of creativity. To me, it is one of the greatest sources of enjoyment.
• 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.
• MoMA is doubling its space, and I decided to raise the money for it.
• 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.