- “It was a surprise to me when I found out that not every family in the country had the same way of looking at the world, which is that if you’ve got stuff, you’re absolutely obliged to give it back, and why wouldn’t you? It wasn’t called philanthropy. It was just what my father, my role model, my uncles and aunts and cousins, who were older than me, were always engaged in. That’s where I first became aware of philanthropy.” – Richard Rockefeller