Andrew Carnegie Quotes

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

I give money for church organs in the hope the organ music will distract the congregation's attention from the rest of the service.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

What one does easily, one does well.

He that cannot reason is a fool.

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.

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.

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.

The wise young man or wage earner of today invests his money in real estate.

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

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.

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.

Golf is an indispensable adjunct to high civilisation.

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.

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

To kill a man will be considered as disgusting [in the twentieth century] as we in this day consider it disgusting to eat one.

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.

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

The morality of compromise sounds contradictory.

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

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

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

Steel is prince or pauper.

Not only had I got rid of the theology and the supernatural, but I had found the truth of evolution.

The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.

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

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

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

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