70+ Famous Andrew Carnegie Quotes On Wealth & Philanthropy

Young man, make your name worth something.

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

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

Pittsburgh entered the core of my heart when I was a boy and cannot be torn out.

The ‘morality of compromise’ sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don’t compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.

There is no use whatsoever in trying to help people who do not help themselves.

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

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

Aim for the highest.

You are what you think. So just think big, believe big, act big, work big, give big, forgive big, laugh big, love big and live big.

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

The greatest astonishment of my life was the discovery that the man who does the work is not the man who gets rich

There is a power under your control that is greater than poverty, greater than the lack of education, greater than all your fears and superstitions combined. It is the power to take possession of your own mind and direct it to whatever ends you may desire.

Success is the power to acquire whatever one demands of life without violating the rights of others.

There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the free public library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.

Concentrate your energy, thought and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged… ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ is all wrong. I tell you ‘put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket.’

Do not think a man has done his full duty when he has performed the work assigned him. A man will never rise if he does only this. Promotion comes from exceptional work.

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

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

Ninety percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate. More money has been made in real estate than in all industrial investments combined. The wise young man or wage earner of today invests his money in real estate.

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

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

To summarize what I have said: aim for the highest; never enter a bar-room; do not touch liquor, or if at all only at meals; never speculate; never indorse beyond your surplus cash fund; make the firm’s interest yours; break orders always to save owners; concentrate; put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket; expenditure always within revenue; lastly, be not impatient, for, as emerson says, “no one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourselves.” I congratulate poor young men upon being born to that ancient and honourable degree which renders it necessary that they should devote themselves to hard work. A basketful of bonds is the heaviest basket a young man ever had to carry. He generally gets to staggering under it. We have in this city creditable instances of such young men, who have pressed to the front rank of our best and most useful citizens. These deserve great credit. But the vast majority of the sons of rich men are unable to resist the temptations to which wealth subjects them, and sink to unworthy lives. I would almost as soon leave a young man a curse, as burden him with the almighty dollar. It is not from this class you have rivalry to fear. The partner’s sons will not trouble you much, but look out that some boys poorer, much poorer than yourselves, whose parents cannot afford to give them the advantages of a course in this institute, advantages which should give you a decided lead in the race–look out that such boys do not challenge you at the post and pass you at the grand stand. 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 the probable dark horse that you had better watch.

The secret of success lies not in doing your own work, but in recognizing the right man to do it.

Success can be attained in any branch of labor. There’s always room at the top in every pursuit.

If thou dost not sow, thou shalt not reap.

Instead of the question “What must I do for my employer?” substitute “What can I do

Don’t be content with doing only your duty. Do more than your duty. It’s the horse that finishes a neck ahead that wins the race.

There are two types of people who never achieve very much in their lifetimes. One is the person who won’t do what he or she is told to do, and the other is the person who does no more than he or she is told to do.

The first thing to do about an obstacle is simply to stand up to it and not complain about it or whine under it but forthrightly attack it. Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have. Just stand up to it, that’s all, and don’t give way under it, and it will finally break. You will break it. Something has to break and it won’t be you, it will be the obstacle.

Do real and permanent good in this world.

The older I get the less I listen to what people say and the more I look at what they do.

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

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

Be king in your dreams. Make your vow that you will reach that position, with untarnished reputation, and make no other vow to distract your attention.

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

No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.

Watch the costs and the profits will take care of themselves.

Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.

All human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes.

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

The best time to expand is when no one else dares to take risks

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

I don’t believe in god. My god is patriotism. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.

Man does not live by bread alone. I have known millionaires starving for lack of the nutriment which alone can sustain all that is human in man, and I know workmen, and many so-called poor men, who revel in luxuries beyond the power of those millionaires to reach. It is the mind that makes the body rich. There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else. Money can only be the useful drudge of things immeasurably higher than itself. Exalted beyond this, as it sometimes is, it remains caliban still and still plays the beast. My aspirations take a higher flight. Mine be it to have contributed to the enlightenment and the joys of the mind, to the things of the spirit, to all that tends to bring into the lives of the toilers of pittsburgh sweetness and light. I hold this the noblest possible use of wealth.

It marks a big step in your development when you come to realize that other people can help you do a better job than you could do alone.

A man’s reading program should be as carefully planned as his daily diet, for that too is food, without which he cannot grow mentally.

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision.

If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.

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

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

Success is getting what you want.
happiness is wanting what you get.

There is little success where there is little laughter.

you cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb a little.

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

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%.

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.

Wealth is not to feed our egos but to feed the hungry and to help people help themselves.

I am no longer cursed by poverty because I took possession of my own mind, and that mind has yielded me every material thing I want, and much more than I need. But this power of mind is a universal one, available to the humblest person as it is to the greatest.

Concentrate your energy, your thoughts and your capital.

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

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

One great cause of failure of young men in business is lack of concentration.

The man who dies rich, dies disgraced.

The secret of happiness is renunciation.

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

The man of wealth [should] consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer 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 that they would or could do for themselves.

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.

Whatever I engage in, I must push inordinately.

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

Here is the prime condition of success: Concentrate your energy, thought and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged. Having begun on one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to lead in it, adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it.

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

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

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

Take away my people, but leave my factories and soon grass will grow on the factory floors……Take away my factories, but leave my people and soon we will have a new and better factory.

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.

Teamwork appears most effective if each individual helps others to succeed, increasing the synergy of that team; ideally, every person will contribute different skills to increase the efficiency of the team and develop its unity.

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

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

Every man gravitates to where he belongs in life, just as surely as water seeks and finds its level. His position is measured precisely by the quality and quantity of the service he renders, plus the mental attitude with which he relates himself to other people.

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.

A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert.

Perhaps the most tragic thing about mankind is that we are all dreaming about some magical garden over the horizon, instead of enjoying the roses that are right outside today.

Libraries are reservoirs of strength, grace and wit, reminders of order, calm and continuity, lakes of mental energy, neither warm nor cold, light nor dark…. In any library in the world, I am at home, unselfconscious, still and absorbed. ~germaine greer.