I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.

Rockefeller elevates perseverance above talent, luck, or circumstance, presenting it as the decisive ingredient in “success of any kind.” The claim that perseverance can overcome “almost everything, even nature” uses deliberate hyperbole to stress endurance against limits that seem fixed—temperament, background, market conditions, or physical constraints. The quote reflects a late-19th/early-20th-century self-help ethos common among industrial leaders: character and sustained effort are framed as the most reliable form of agency. Read critically, it also implies a moral hierarchy in which persistence is treated as universally available, downplaying structural barriers; yet its enduring appeal lies in its pragmatic focus on long-term discipline.