Quotation
Quote by John Jacob Astor
But for the war, I would have been the richest man that ever lived.
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Understanding this quote
The speaker says that the war prevented them from becoming extraordinarily wealthy. “But for” means “if it had not been for,” so the sentence presents the war as the one event that kept them from being the richest person alive.
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- Source
- Library of Congress digital scan, Success Library: John Jacob Astor
- Format
- Article
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