John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known as J.P. Morgan and Co., he was a driving force behind the wave of industrial consolidation in the United States spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Over the course of his career on Wall Street, J. P. Morgan spearheaded the formation of several prominent multinational corporations including U.S. Steel, International Harvester and General Electric which subsequently fell under his supervision. He and his partners also held controlling interests in numerous other American businesses including Aetna, Western Union, Pullman Car Company and 21 railroads.
Due to the extent of his dominance over U.S. finance, Morgan exercised enormous influence over the nation’s policies and the market forces underlying its economy. During the Panic of 1907, he organized a coalition of financiers that saved the American monetary system from collapse. As the Progressive Era’s leading financier, J. P. Morgan’s dedication to efficiency and modernization helped transform the shape of the American economy.
Some of the best quotes from J. P. Morgan are listed below.
- “A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.” – J. P. Morgan
- “A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing. One that sounds good, and a real one.” – J. P. Morgan
- “A man I do not trust could not get money from me on all the bonds in Christendom. I think that is the fundamental basis of business.” – J. P. Morgan
- “Any man who is bearish on the United States will go broke.” – J. P. Morgan
- “Anyone can be a millionaire, but to become a billionaire you need an astrologer.” – J. P. Morgan
- “Congress should know how to levy taxes, and if it doesn’t know how to collect them, then a man is a fool to pay the taxes.” – J. P. Morgan
- “Don’t talk to me about appealing to the public. I am done with the public, for the present anyway. The public reads the headlines and that is all. The story itself is fair and shows the facts. That would be all right if the public read the facts. But it does not. It reads the headline and listens to the demagogues and that’s the stuff public opinion is made of.” – J. P. Morgan
- “Giving debt relief to people that really need it, that’s what foreclosure is.” – J. P. Morgan
- “Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther.” – J. P. Morgan
- “Gold is money. Everything else is credit.” – J. P. Morgan
- “I do not remember in my whole life I ever willfully misrepresented anything to anybody at any time. I have never knowingly had a connection with a fraudulent scheme.” – 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!” – J. P. Morgan
- “I feel bound in honor when I reorganize a property and am morally responsible for its management, to protect it – and I generally do protect it.” – J. P. Morgan
- “I made a fortune getting out too soon.” – J. P. Morgan
- “If that’s all he can get, and he takes it, I should say it’s enough.” – J. P. Morgan
- “If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it.” – J. P. Morgan
- “If you want time to pass quickly, just give a banker your note for 90 days.” – J. P. Morgan
- “It was not really a question of price. It was a question of success.” – J. P. Morgan
- “Let every lion do his duty.” – J. P. Morgan
- “Millionaires don’t use Astrology, billionaires do.” – J. P. Morgan
- “Money equals business which equals power, all of which come from character and trust.” – J. P. Morgan
- “My first guess is sometimes right. My second never is.” – J. P. Morgan
- “Never sell a bear in the United States.” – J. P. Morgan
- “No price is too great for a work of unquestioned beauty and known authenticity.” – 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
- “Nothing so undermines your financial judgment as the sight of your neighbor getting rich.” – J. P. Morgan
- “Of all forms of tyranny, the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of plutocracy.” – J. P. Morgan
- “People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders. This is well known among our principle, men now engaged in forming an imperialism of capitalism to govern the world. By dividing the people, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us except as teachers of the common herd.” – J. P. Morgan
- “Remember, my son, that any man who is a bear on the future of this country will go broke.” – 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
- “The first thing [in credit] is character… before money or anything else. Money cannot buy it.” – J. P. Morgan
- “The wise man bridges the gap by laying out the path by means of which he can get from where he is to where he wants to go.” – J. P. Morgan
- “Well, I don’t know as I want a lawyer to tell me what I cannot do. I hire him to tell how to do what I want to do.” – J. P. Morgan
- “When a man abuses his power, he loses it.” – J. P. Morgan
- “When a shoe shiner takes an interest in stocks, he needs to leave the market immediately.” – J. P. Morgan
- “When asked what the stock market will do: It will fluctuate.” – J. P. Morgan
- “When I have business on hand, I think it is better to have it done quickly.” – J. P. Morgan
- “When you expect things to happen – strangely enough – they do happen.” – J. P. Morgan
- “You can’t pick cherries with your back to the tree.” – J. P. Morgan
- “You can’t unscramble eggs.” – J. P. Morgan
- “You have no right to own a yacht if you ask that question.” – J. P. Morgan
