John D. Rockefeller is reputed to have said, "The only thing that gives me pleasure is to see my dividends coming in." Income investors hopefully lead fuller emotional lives than the richest American who ever lived, but they, like Rockefeller, should understand the long-term power of dividends.

Just have a look at the best stocks of the past half-century. In every case but one - which is a very special case, indeed - dividend income was critical to generating superior returns over the long haul.

S&P Dow Jones Indices recently published a list of the 25 stocks in Standard & Poor's 500-stock index that generated the best returns over the past 50 years. By price appreciation alone, many of these stocks delivered underwhelming annualized returns.

On a total-return basis (price appreciation plus dividends), however, these stocks blew away the broader market. Over the last 50 years, the S&P 500 generated an annualized return including dividends of 9.5%. That's peanuts compared to the returns generated by the best stocks of the past half-century.

Have a look at the best stocks of the past 50 years and you'll see that unless they're Warren Buffett (hint, hint), long-term investors should probably covet dividends like a Rockefeller.

25. State Street

State Street (STT, $64.19) is the third-largest asset manager in the world after BlackRock (BLK) and Vanguard, with $2.8 trillion in assets under management. The Boston-based firm is probably best known for its long list of SPDR exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Indeed, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is the market's biggest ETF by both assets ($243.3 billion) and average daily volume (131.8 million).

The firm traces its roots back to the late 1700s and began operating as the State Street Deposit & Trust Co. in 1891. Like the rest of the financial services industry, SST has spent the last 50 years in an almost perpetual state of change, compiling a dizzying record of acquisitions, dispositions and other deals. Throughout it all, the firm managed to deliver an annualized total return of nearly 13.7%.

24. Rockwell Automation

Rockwell Automation (, $150.13) manufactures and develops software and equipment that companies use to automate their factories. Most recently, the company has become a leader in the "Internet of Things" -