Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) was a Scottish-born American steel magnate and philanthropist. He built up a fortune in the steel industry, became one of the richest men in the world, and dedicated his wealth to charitable purposes—particularly libraries, education, and the arts.
Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, Carnegie grew up in Scotland and migrated to America in 1848. He taught himself using library books, became a telegraph operator, and then secretary of a Pennsylvania Railroad executive. He soon became Pennsylvania Railroad’s vice president, then an investor, and gradually built a steel empire by manufacturing steel rails for America’s burgeoning railroad industry.
At the height of his career, in 1901, after selling the Carnegie Steel Company to financier J. P. Morgan for 250 million dollars ($7 Billion in 2017,) Carnegie decided to retire and devote himself to giving his wealth all away. He later gave money to create more than 2,500 “free to the people” libraries all over the United States and in Britain.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Andrew Carnegie
No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Rich, Become
I have never known a concern to make a decided success that did not do good, honest work, and even in these days of fiercest competition, when everything would seem to be a matter of price, there lies still at the root of great business success the very much more important factor of quality. The effect of attention to quality, upon every man in the service, from the president of the concern down to the humblest laborer, cannot be overestimated.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Quality
No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.
—Andrew Carnegie
It is not the rich man’s son that the young struggler for advancement has to fear in the race for life, nor his nephew, nor his cousin. Let him look out for the dark horse in the boy who begins by sweeping out the office.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Improvement
Concentration is my motto—first honesty, then industry, then concentration.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Work, Concentration, Study
It marks a big step in a man’s development when he comes to realize that other men can be called in to help him do a better job than he can do alone.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Work
In bestowing charity, the main consideration: should be to help those who will help themselves; to provide part of the means by which those who desire to improve may do so; to give those who desire to rise the aids by which they may rise; to assist, but rarely or never to do all. Neither the individual nor the race is improved by almsgiving. Those worthy of assistance, except in rare cases, seldom require assistance. The really valuable men of the race never do, except in case of accident or sudden change. Every one has, of course, cases of individuals brought to his own knowledge where temporary assistance can do genuine good, and these he will not overlook. But the amount which can be wisely given by the individual for individuals is necessarily limited by his lack of knowledge of the circumstances connected with each. He is the only true reformer who is as care ful and as anxious not to aid the unworthy as he is to aid the worthy, and, perhaps, even more so, for in almsgiving more injury is probably done by rewarding vice than by relieving virtue.
The rich man is thus almost restricted to following the examples of…others, who know that the best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise: free libraries, parks, and means of recreation, by which men are helped in body and mind; works of art, certain to give pleasure and improve the public taste; and public institutions of various kinds, which will improve the general condition of the people; in this manner returning their surplus wealth to the mass of their fellows in the forms best calculated to do them lasting good.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Charity
We accept and welcome… as conditions to which we must accommodate ourselves, great inequality of environment; the concentration of business, industrial and commercial, in the hands of a few; and the law of competition between these, as being not only beneficial, but essential for the future progress of the race.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Equality
Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Wealth
I would as soon leave my son a curse as the almighty dollar.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Inheritance
Nothing tells in the long run like a good judgment, and no sound judgment can remain with the man whose mind is disturbed by the mercurial changes of the stock exchange. It places him under an influence akin to intoxication. What is not, he sees, and what he sees, is not.
—Andrew Carnegie
Aim for the highest.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Vision
Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Achievements, Vision, Business, Success, Achievement, Life, Achieve
Upon the sacredness of property civilization itself depends – the right of the laborer to his hundred dollars in the savings bank, and equally the legal right of the millionaire to his millions.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Property
My supply of Scotch caution never has been small; but I was apparently something of a daredevil now and then to the manufacturing fathers of Pittsburgh. They were old and I was young, which made all the difference.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Youth
The thorough man of business knows that only by years of patient, unremitting attention to affairs can he earn his reward, which is the result, not of chance, but of well-devised means for the attainment to ends.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Achievements
Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Confidence, Power, Positive Attitudes, Optimism, Assurance
Look out for the boy who has to plunge into work direct from the common school and who begins by sweeping out the office. He is probably the dark horse you had better watch.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Education
Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Teams, Teamwork
Let us pity and forgive those who urge increased armaments, for “they know not what they do.”
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: War
The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Confidence, Self Confidence, The Mind, Mind
What one does easily, one does well.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Doing
The day is not far distant when the man who dies leaving behind him millions of available wealth, which was free for him to administer during life, will pass away “unwept, unhonored, and unsung,” no matter to what uses he leave the dross which he cannot take with him. Of such as these the public verdict will then be: “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.” Such, in my opinion, is the true gospel concerning wealth, obedience to which is destined some day to solve the problem of the rich and the poor.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Wealth
A word, a look, an accent, may affect the destiny not only of individuals, but of nations. He is a bold man who calls anything a trifle.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Destiny
As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Action, Doing, Attention
If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Thoughts, Energy, Happy
Public sentiment will come to be, that the man who dies rich dies disgraced.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Riches, Philanthropy
People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Motivation, Success, Knowledge, Thought, People, Kindness, Life, Compassion
The man who enters a library is in the best society this world affords; the good and the great welcome him, surround him, and humbly ask to be allowed to become his servants.
—Andrew Carnegie
The secret of happines is renunciation.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Happiness
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Sheryl Sandberg American Executive, Author
Alexander Hamilton American Statesman
George Westinghouse American Engineer
Jane Addams American Social Reformer
Maria Mitchell American Astronomer
Victor Hugo French Novelist
Philip H. Knight American Businessman
J. P. Morgan American Financier, Philanthropist
John D. Rockefeller American Industrialist, Philanthropist
J. Paul Getty American Business Person