Not to be glib, but did Rockefeller have many friends? I'd bet he didn't say this.

Real quote: "A friendship founded on business is a good deal better than a business founded on friendship."

src: http://www.woopidoo.com/business_quotes/authors/john-rockefe...

Doubtful. The internet is chock full of these cuckoo quote sites. If Google doesn't yield a primary source, it's almost certainly fake. This is one area where absence of evidence really is evidence of absence.

Edit: not a criticism of the quote itself. These things wouldn't get misattributed if they weren't worth repeating. But they wouldn't get repeated if they weren't misattributed, either; it's a kind of cultural appeal to authority.

The quote is from Rockefeller quoting his business partner Flagler. For a primary source, see "Random reminiscences of men and events" by JD Rockefeller, 1913.

Google Books is great for verifying this sort of quote: http://books.google.com/books?id=IHnZAAAAMAAJ&dq=A%20fri...

Good catch!