You have undertaken to cheat me. I won’t sue you, for the law is too slow. I’ll ruin you.

The line expresses a hard-edged, extra-legal conception of justice: when wronged, the speaker rejects courts as ineffective and instead threatens retaliation through economic power. It encapsulates a worldview often associated with cutthroat nineteenth-century American capitalism—where speed, leverage, and reputation could matter more than formal adjudication. The quote’s force lies in its escalation from a grievance (“cheat me”) to a refusal of institutional remedy (“the law is too slow”) and finally to a personal vow of destruction (“I’ll ruin you”), implying that the speaker’s resources and influence can be weaponized. Whether or not Vanderbilt said it verbatim, the sentiment functions as a cautionary emblem of power unconstrained by legal process.