David Rockefeller

For more than 40 years, I have advocated the creation of a 'round the clock' community. This would mean, at the least, housing, schools and shops of various kinds alongside the commercial buildings. That kind of community had appeared in lower Manhattan in nascent form before Sept. 11, 2001.

Only once in my life was I on the edge of incivility.

I think of art as the highest level of creativity. I was exposed to it since I was very small.

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

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

I owe much to mother. She had an expert's understanding, but also approached art emotionally.

When I see something I like, I buy it, but I do not look for it madly.

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 can only say that I have had a wonderful life.

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.

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.

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.

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

I think of art as the highest level of creativity. To me, it is one of the greatest sources of enjoyment.

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.

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.

Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if youre not frightened by these things the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.

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.

I hope the Guggenheim plan will be revived.

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.

I do not like to be unkind.

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

My own interest in art was because of my mother. My father didn't like contemporary art, so he didn't give her large sums to spend. So, she began buying prints and drawings. During my school days, I remember sitting in on many of the early meetings.

Much corporate giving is charitable in nature rather than philanthropic.

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.

The negative impact of population growth on all of our planetary ecosystems is becoming appallingly evident.

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

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

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.

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.

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

I am a passionate traveler, and from the time I was a child, travel formed me as much as my formal education. In order to appreciate cultures of another nation, one needs to go there, know the people and mingle with the culture of that country. One way to do that, if one is lucky enough, is to buy things from those cultures.

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

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.

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

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.

Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you're not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.

I think I am basically a happy person.

If the disagreement was strong enough we could end up pretty close to the borderline of incivility.

A museum has to renew its collection to be alive, but that does not mean we give on important old works.

The Christian ethic played an essential part in my upbringing.

I believe that government is the servant of the people and not their master.

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

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