Quotes By David Rockefeller

I do not like to be unkind.

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.

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

Much corporate giving is charitable in nature rather than philanthropic.

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

I can only say that I have had a wonderful life.

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 am never angry, although sometimes distressed.

Mother's interest in contemporary American artists emerged during the 1920s.

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.

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

The Christian ethic played an essential part in my upbringing.

Mother's taste was eclectic and ranged from the ancient world to the contemporary from Europe to the U.S.

I hope the Guggenheim plan will be revived.

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.

I think I am basically a happy person.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.