Stephen Van Rensselaer
Stephen Van Rensselaer III (November 1, 1764 – January 26, 1839) was Lieutenant Governor of New York as well as a statesman, soldier, and land-owner, the heir to one of the largest estates in the New York region at the time, which made him the tenth richest American of all time, based on the ratio of his fortune to contemporary GDP. This figure was put at $68 billion, which also makes him the twenty-second richest person in history. He founded the institution which became Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Read more about Stephen Van Rensselaer: Early Life, Politics and The War of 1812, Later Life, Family
Famous quotes containing the words stephen, van and/or rensselaer:
“Comes from a fine family. So she tells me. Brother’s a priest, all that. But, you know, death, disaster, unfortunate investments. One day she’s a little princess, up on the hill. Next, she’s down there, working the bars for the best she can.”
—Peter Prince, British screenwriter, and Stephen Frears. Harry (Bill Hunter)
“When van Gogh paints sunflowers, he reveals, or achieves, the vivid relation between himself, as man, and the sunflower, as sunflower, at that quick moment of time. His painting does not represent the sunflower itself. We shall never know what the sunflower itself is. And the camera will visualize the sunflower far more perfectly than van Gogh can.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Let us shun self-analyzation, self-consciousness, morbidness, affectation, attitudinizing. Let us look ahead as little as possible, keeping our eyes on our brushes and on the world of beauty around us.”
—Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer (1851–1934)