"A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing. One that sounds good, and a real one"
About this Quote
Morgan’s line lands like a banker’s paperknife: clean, cold, and designed to open the envelope without leaving fingerprints. It’s not just cynicism for sport. It’s a field guide to power in an era when “sound reasons” were the PR wing of American capitalism, and “real reasons” lived in boardrooms, back channels, and balance sheets.
The genius is in the mildness of “sounds good.” Morgan doesn’t accuse people of lying; he suggests they’re performing. Public explanations are crafted to be legible to other people’s moral frameworks: duty, progress, patriotism, prudence. The real motive is often simpler and less shareable: control, profit, leverage, fear, ego. By treating this split as “general,” he normalizes it as a social operating system rather than a personal failing. That’s a subtle flex from a man who helped invent modern corporate finance: if everyone has a cover story and a true story, the winner is the person who can read both, and write the better cover.
There’s also a quiet warning to the listener. If you take stated motives at face value, you’re a mark. In the Gilded Age context - labor unrest, monopolies, political capture - the line doubles as an alibi for elite decision-making: don’t moralize too hard; motives are messy, and the world runs on interests.
It’s not uplifting, but it’s clarifying. Morgan is telling you where the real negotiations happen: not in the reasons that persuade, but in the reasons that pay.
The genius is in the mildness of “sounds good.” Morgan doesn’t accuse people of lying; he suggests they’re performing. Public explanations are crafted to be legible to other people’s moral frameworks: duty, progress, patriotism, prudence. The real motive is often simpler and less shareable: control, profit, leverage, fear, ego. By treating this split as “general,” he normalizes it as a social operating system rather than a personal failing. That’s a subtle flex from a man who helped invent modern corporate finance: if everyone has a cover story and a true story, the winner is the person who can read both, and write the better cover.
There’s also a quiet warning to the listener. If you take stated motives at face value, you’re a mark. In the Gilded Age context - labor unrest, monopolies, political capture - the line doubles as an alibi for elite decision-making: don’t moralize too hard; motives are messy, and the world runs on interests.
It’s not uplifting, but it’s clarifying. Morgan is telling you where the real negotiations happen: not in the reasons that persuade, but in the reasons that pay.
Quote Details
| Topic | Honesty & Integrity |
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