His accusers rhetorically asked:

"Shall we buy cheap of Captain Kidd, and shut our ears to the
agony that rustles in his silks?"

-- HENRY DEMAMST LLOYD

Others disagreed:

"He was a bold innovator in both industry and philanthropy;
. . . he brought to the first a great unifying idea, which he
insisted should be thoroughly tested, and to the second a
stronger, more expert, and more enduring type of organization."

-- ALLAN NEVINS

Many believed him to be great:

"If to live in advance of one's time, to be the first on the ground
in the direction of progress, is greatness, John D. Rockefeller
is great."

-- MARCUS M. BROWN

Others observed:

"But his mouth was a slit, like a shark's."

-- MATTHEW JOSEPHSON

To account for his fabulous fortune, one writer declared:

" America is the habitat of the self-made man, and the self-made
man is a pecuniary organism."

-- THORSTEM VEBLEN

But Rockefeller simply said:

"God gave me my money."