"I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half."
"I sometimes think I should like to give up business entirely. The care and worriment attending large business interests are very great, but besides that fact the manner in which motives are impugned and characters assailed is most unpleasant"
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Source: Jay Gould : A Character Sketch by William T. Stead, February 1893.
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"I never notice what is said about me. I am credited with things I have never done, and abused for them. It would be idle to attempt to contradict newspaper talk and street rumors."
"It was the custom when men received nominations to come to me for contributions, and I made them and considered them good paying investments for the company. In a Republican district I was a strong Republican; in a Democratic district I was Democratic, and in doubtful districts I was doubtful. In politics I was an Erie Railroad man all the time."
"Having the ability to get and gain respect through your work is great but you have to be careful not to get carried away."
"I judge property myself by its net earning power; that is the only rule I have been able to get.... This whole island [Manhattan] was once bought for a few strings of beads. But now you will find this property valued by its earning power, by its rent power, and that is the way to value a railroad or telegraph."
"I do not believe that since man was in the habit of living on this planet anyone has ever lived possessed of the impudence of Jay Gould."