"I don't care half so much about making money as I do about making my point, and coming out ahead."
— Cornelius Vanderbilt
I Dont Care Half So Much
I don't care half so much about making money as I do about making my point, and coming out ahead.
About this quote
Reported in T.J. Stiles's biography The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (2009), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. The remark captures Vanderbilt's characteristic indifference to pure profit maximization: he was as driven by the desire to outmaneuver rivals as by financial return. His competitive battles with rivals such as Daniel Drew and Jay Gould were as much about dominance as dollars.
Source
Attributed, reported in T.J. Stiles' The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
