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 will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.
—Andrew Carnegie
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
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
As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Action, Doing
People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Kindness, People, Success, Life, Motivation, Compassion, Thought, Knowledge
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
The surest foundation of a manufacturing concern is quality. After that, and a long way after, comes cost.
—Andrew Carnegie
The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.
—Andrew Carnegie
The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Work, Action
Public sentiment will come to be, that the man who dies rich dies disgraced.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Philanthropy, Riches
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, The Mind
I have had a long, long life full of troubles, but there is one curious fact about them–nine-tenths of them never happened.
—Andrew Carnegie
No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.
—Andrew Carnegie
Topics: Rich
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
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