1835-1919, American Industrialist, Philanthropist
Aim for the highest.
Andrew Carnegie – [Vision]
All honor's wounds are self-inflicted.
Andrew Carnegie – [Honor]
As I grow older, I pay less attention to what people say. I just watch what they do.
Andrew Carnegie – [Action]
Concentrate; put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket…
Andrew Carnegie – [Concentration]
Concentration is my motto — first honesty, then industry, then concentration.
Andrew Carnegie – [Concentration]
Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.
Andrew Carnegie – [Excellence]
I can't afford to pay them any other way.
Andrew Carnegie – [Payment]
I would as soon leave my son a curse as the almighty dollar.
Andrew Carnegie – [Inheritance]
Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs.
Andrew Carnegie – [Power]
No amount of ability is of the slightest avail without honor.
Andrew Carnegie – [Ability]
No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.
Andrew Carnegie – [Delegation]
Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.
Andrew Carnegie – [Wealth]
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 – [Work]
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 – [Wealth]
The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.
Andrew Carnegie – [Winners and Winning]
The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he justly entitled.
Andrew Carnegie – [Mind]
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 – [Competition]
The way to become rich is to put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.
Andrew Carnegie – [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 – [Self-improvement]
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.
Andrew Carnegie – [Riches]