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
At the end, the acquisition of wealth is ignoble in the extreme. I assume that you save and long for wealth only as a means of enabling you the better to do some good in your day and generation.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Wealth
As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Action, Doing, Attention
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
The price which society pays for the law of competition, like the price it pays for cheap comforts and luxuries, is great; but the advantages of this law are also greater still than its cost—for it is to this law that we owe our wonderful material development, which brings improved conditions in its train. But, whether the law be benign or not, we must say of it: It is here; we cannot evade it; no substitutes for it have been found; and while the law may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Competition
The secret of happines is renunciation.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Happiness
It was from my own early experience that I decided there was no use to which money could be applied so productive of good to boys and girls who have good within them and ability and ambition to develop it as the founding of a public library.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Reading
One of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Charity
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
The secret of happiness is renunciation.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Happiness
The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Wealth
No man is a true gentleman who does not inspire the affection and devotion of his servants.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Manners
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
The surest foundation of a manufacturing concern is quality. After that, and a long way after, comes cost.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Quality
Aim for the highest.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Vision
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
The paper which obtains a reputation for publishing authentic news and only that which is fit to print, … will steadily increase its influence.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Journalism
The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.
—Andrew Carnegie
No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Rich, Become
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
There is no use whatever trying to help people who do not help themselves. You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he be willing to climb himself.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Progress, Helping, Self-improvement
You can’t push anyone up the ladder unless he is ready to climb himself.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Planning, Preparation
What one does easily, one does well.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Doing
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
And while the law of ‘competition’ may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Survival, Capitalism
If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Energy, Thoughts, Happy
Public sentiment will come to be, that the man who dies rich dies disgraced.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Philanthropy, Riches
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
All honor’s wounds are self-inflicted.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Honor, Perspective
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
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Sheryl Sandberg American Executive, Author
- Henry M. Flagler American Financier
- 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
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