Andrew Carnegie Quotations

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.

Do your duty and a little more and the future will take care of itself.

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

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%.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

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.

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.

The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.

You must capture and keep the heart of the original and supremely able man before his brain can do its best.

No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.

I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle.

Concentration is my motto - first honesty, then industry, then concentration.

Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something.

Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.

The way to become rich is to put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.

People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.

There is little success where there is little laughter.

Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.

He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave.

Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs.

Whatever I engage in, I must push inordinately.

I resolved to stop accumulating and begin the infinitely more serious and difficult task of wise distribution.

Mr. Morgan buys his partners; I grow my own.

You cannot push any one up a ladder unless he be willing to climb a little himself.

Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.

I would as soon leave my son a curse as the almighty dollar.

There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else.

This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and, after doing so, to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community /the man of wealth thus becoming the mere trustee and agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves.

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.

I believe that the true road to preeminent success in any line is to make yourself master of that line

the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.

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

There is very little success where there is very little laughter.

While the law [of competition] may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it insures the survival of the fittest in every department. We accept and welcome, therefore, 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.

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.

Why should men leave great fortunes to their children? If this is done from affection, is it not misguided affection? Observation teaches that, generally speaking, it is not well for the children that they should be so burdened.

A man who was generous with his wealth. It has been reported that during his lifetime, Carnegie gave away over $350 million of his money to help others.

The man who dies leaving behind him millions of available wealth, which was his to administer during his life, will pass away unwept, unhonoured and insung no matter to what uses he leaves the dross which he cannot take with him.

The worlds civilization started from the day on which everyone received reward for labour.

Touch his head, and he will bargain and argue with you to the last; Touch his heart, and he falls upon your breast.

If thou dost not sow, thou shalt not reap,

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.

A sunny disposition is worth more than fortune.

Show me a man of average ability but extraordinary desire and I'll show you a winner every time.

All honor's wounds are self-inflicted.

Life is not so much a matter of position as of disposition.

The Republic may not give wealth or happiness, she has not promised these. It is the freedom to pursue these, not their realization, we can claim.

Those who would administer wisely must, indeed, be wise, for one of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity.

A business is seldom if ever built up except on lines of strictest integrity.

What one does easily, one does well.

The only irreplaceable capital an organization possesses is the knowledge and ability of its people. The productivity of that capital depends on how effectively people share their competence with those who can use it.

All is well since all grows better

In [my] life ... I did not understand steam machinery, but I tried to understand that much more complicated piece of mechanism - man.

The battle of life is already half won by the young man who is brought in contact with high officials; and the great aim of every boy should be to do something beyond the sphere of his duties- something which attracts the attention of those over him.

Here lies one who knew how to get around him men who were cleverer than himself

You develop millionaires the way you mine gold. You expect to move tons of dirt to find an ounce of gold, but you don't go into the mine looking for the dirt-you go in looking for the gold.

Speculation is a parasite feeding upon values, creating none.

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.

A sunny disposition is worth more than [a monetary] fortune. Young people should know that it can be cultivated; that the mind like the body can be moved from the shade into sunshine.

The rare individuals who unselfishly try to serve others have an enormous advantage-they have little competition.

Golf is an indispensable adjunct to high civilisation.

Not evil, but good, has come to the race from the accumulation of wealth by those who have the ability and energy that produce it.

The secret of happiness is renunciation.

Do real and permanent good in this world.

The surest foundation of a manufacturing concern is quality. After that, and a long way after, comes cost.

When fate hands us a lemon, let's try to make lemonade.

When I did big things, some large corporations like the Pennsylvania Railroad Company were behind me and responsible party.

Those who would administer [charity] wisely must, indeed, be wise, for one of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity. It were better for mankind that the millions of the rich were thrown into the sea than spent to encourage the slothful, the drunken, the unworthy. Of every thousand dollars spent in so-called charity today, it is probable that nine hundred and fifty dollars is unwisely spent - so spent, indeed, as to produce the very evils which it hopes to mitigate or cure.

Steel is prince or pauper.

The sole purpose of being rich is to give away money.

Private Property, the Law of Accumulation of Wealth, and the Law of Competition... these are the highest results of human experience, the soil in which society so far has produced the best fruit.

I spent the first half of my life making money and the second half of my life giving it away to do the most good and the least harm.

It is trying to be other than one's self that unmans one. Be your own natural self and go ahead.

Capitalism is about turning luxuries into necessities.

Men who reach decisions promptly usually have the capacity to move with definiteness of purpose in other circumstances.

There is nothing that robs a righteous cause of its strength more than a millionaire's money.

That 95 per cent. fail of those who start in business upon their own account seems incredible, and yet such are said to be the statistics upon the subject.

Give me a man with an average ability but a burning desire to succeed and I will give you a winner in exchange every time.

I can't afford to pay them any other way.

The public only knows one side of [Mark Mark Twain] - the amusing part. Little does it suspect that he was a man of strong convictions upon political and social questions and a moralist of no mean order.

There is scarcely an instance of a man who has made a fortune by speculation and kept it

TEAMWORK: the fuel that allows common people attain uncommon results.

The morality of compromise sounds contradictory.

There is no way of making a business successful that can vie with the policy of promoting those who render exceptional service.

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.

I will give a million dollars for any convincing proof of a future life.

Mutual ignorance breeds mutual distrust.

I began to learn what poverty meant. It was burnt in my heart then that my father had to beg for work and there came the resolve that I would cure that when I got to be a man.

The sound rule in busi­ness is that you may give money freely when you have a sur­plus, but your name never-nei­ther as en­dorser nor as mem­ber of a cor­po­ra­tion with in­di­vid­ual li­a­bil­ity

He that cannot reason is a fool.

The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work.

Neither the individual nor the race is improved by almsgiving. The best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise.

Any idea that is held in the mind that is either feared or revered will, begin at once to clothe itself in the most convenient and appropriate physical forms available.

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.

I choose free libraries as the best agencies for improving the masses of the people, because they give nothing for nothing. They only help those who help themselves.

Three generations from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves.

Give me the life of the boy whose mother is nurse, seamstress, washerwoman, cook, teacher, angel, and saint, all in one, and whose father is guide, exemplar, and friend. No servants to come between. These are the boys who are born to the best fortune.

The man who dies rich, dies disgraced.

It is more difficult to give money away intelligently than to earn it in the first place.