Bernard Baruch

Bernard Mannes Baruch (19 August 1870 – 20 June 1965) was an American financier, stock market speculator, statesman, and presidential advisor. After his success in business, he devoted his time toward advising Democratic presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt on economic matters.

Peace is never long preserved by weight of metal or by an armament race. Peace can be made tranquil and secure only by understanding and agreement fortified by sanctions. We must embrace international cooperation or international disintegration.

Quotes

Science has taught us how to put the atom to work. But to make it work for good instead of for evil lies in the domain dealing with the principles of human dignity. We are now facing a problem more of ethics than of physics.

Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter.

• America has never forgotten — and never will forget — the nobler things that brought her into being and that light her path — the path that was entered upon only one hundred and fifty years ago … How young she is! It will be centuries before she will adopt that maturity of custom — the clothing of the grave — that some people believe she is already fitted for.
  • Address on accepting The Churchman Award, New York (23 May 1944)

• Behind the black portent of the new atomic age lies a hope which, seized upon with faith, can work out salvation … Let us not deceive ourselves: we must elect world peace or world destruction.
  • Address to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (14 June 1946)

• Peace is never long preserved by weight of metal or by an armament race. Peace can be made tranquil and secure only by understanding and agreement fortified by sanctions. We must embrace international cooperation or international disintegration. Science has taught us how to put the atom to work. But to make it work for good instead of for evil lies in the domain dealing with the principles of human dignity. We are now facing a problem more of ethics than of physics.
  • Address to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (14 June 1946)

• Let us not be deceived — we are today in the midst of a cold war. Our enemies are to be found abroad and at home. Let us never forget this: Our unrest is the heart of their success. The peace of the world is the hope and the goal of our political system; it is the despair and defeat of those who stand against us. We can depend only on ourselves.
  • Speech to the South Carolina Legislature, Columbia, SC (April 16, 1947); reported in Journal of the House of Representatives of the First Session of the 87th General Assembly of the State of South Carolina, p. 1085. Baruch said that the phrase "cold war" was suggested to him by H. B. Swope, editor of the New York World; the term had earlier been used by George Orwell (1945). Also quoted in: History.com (April 14, 2020): This Day in History: April 16, 1947. Bernard Baruch coins the term “Cold War". Publisher: A&E Television Networks. Archived from the original on August 12, 2021.

• Although the shooting war is over, we are in the midst of a cold war which is getting warmer.
  • Speech before the Senate’s Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program (1948)

A Political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren't still there, he's no longer a political leader.

• Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter.
  • Often quoted response to Igor Cassini, a popular society columnist for the New York Journal American, when asked how he handled the seating arrangements for all those who attended his dinner parties, as quoted in Shake Well Before Using: A New Collection of Impressions and Anecdotes Mostly Humorous (1948) by Bennett Cerf, p. 249; the full response was "I never bother about that. Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter." This anecdote is also [quoted online at Chiasmus and has also become part of a larger expression, which has been commonly attributed to Dr. Seuss, even in print, but without citation of a specific work : "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

• Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.
  • Deming Headlight (New Mexico), 6 January 1950, as cited in the Yale Book of Modern Proverbs and at There Are Opinions, And Then There Are Facts; Freakonomics blog post by Fred R. Shapiro (18 August 2011)

• There are no such things as incurable, there are only things for which man has not found a cure.
  • Speech (30 April 1954)

I'm not smart. I try to observe. Millions saw the apple fall but Newton was the one who asked why.

• To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am.
  • On his 85th birthday, as quoted in The Observer [London] (21 August 1955)

• I am quite sure that in the hereafter she will take me by the hand and lead me to my proper seat.
  • Regarding a childhood teacher, as quoted in News summaries (29 August 1955)

• I am interested in physical medicine because my father was. I am interested in medical research because I believe in it. I am interested in arthritis because I have it.
  • As quoted in The New York Post (1 May 1959)

• Vote for the man who promises least; he'll be the least disappointing.
  • As quoted in Meyer Berger’s New York (1960)

• A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren’t still there, he’s no longer a political leader.
  • As quoted in his obituary, New York Times (21 June 1965)

• I'm not smart. I try to observe. Millions saw the apple fall but Newton was the one who asked why.
  • New York Post (24 June 1965)

• A speculator is a man who observes the future, and acts before it occurs.
  • 20,000 Quotes and Quips by Evan Esar (1968) original quote in Baruch, Bernard, The Public Years. NY, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960, p.31.

Quotes about Baruch

• In the Baruch proposal our government suggested the creation of the International Authority by the United Nations to which would be given a complete monopoly of all atomic installations, materials and stockpiles. This authority should be given power of inspection and power to call for the punishment of violators.
  • Kirby Page, What Does God Want Us to Do About Russia? (1948)

Disputed

• If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
  • Called "Baruch's Observation" in The Complete Murphy's Law : A Definitive Collection (1991) by Arthur Bloch, such statements have also attributed to, Michael Polanyi, and Mark Twain; see the Wiktionary page for this statement for more details.
  • Variant: I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.
    • Abraham Maslow, The Psychology of Science : A Reconnaissance (1966), Ch. 2, p. 15.

Misattributed

• Anyone taken as an individual is tolerably sensible—as a member of a crowd, he at once becomes a blockhead.
  • Friedrich Schiller. As quoted by Baruch in his Foreword to the 1932 edition of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841), by Charles Mackay.

• It will fluctuate.
  • Sometimes attributed as a response by Baruch, when asked what the market would do, this is more often attributed to J. P. Morgan.

External links

• Profile from Find-a-Grave
• Annotated bibliography for Bernard Baruch from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues