Best 142 quotes of Andrew Carnegie on MyQuotes

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

All honor's wounds are self-inflicted.

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.

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.

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

Any person can achieve greatness if they understand the philosophy of success and the steps required to achieve it.

Anything in life worth having is worth working for.

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

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.

A sunny disposition is worth more than fortune.

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.

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.

Capitalism is about turning luxuries into necessities.

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

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.'

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

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

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.

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.

Do real and permanent good in this world.

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

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.

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.

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.

Golf is an indispensable adjunct to high civilisation.

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.

He that cannot reason is a fool.

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

Humanities education is the worst thing for an industrialist.

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.

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.

I believe that the road to pre-eminent success in any line of work is to make yourself master of that line of work.

I believe the true road to preeminent success in any line is to make yourself master in that line. I have no faith in the policy of scattering one's resources, and in my experience I have rarely if ever met a man who achieved preeminence in money making.. certainly never one in manufacturing.. who was interested in many concerns.

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.

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.

If it is right that schools should be maintained by the whole community for the well-being of the whole, it is right also that libraries should be so maintained.

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

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

I have had a long, long life full of troubles, but there is one curious fact about them-nine-tenths of them never happened.

I have never known a concern to make a decided success that did not do good, honest work, and even in these days of fiercest competition, when everything would seem to be a matter of price, there lies still at the root of great business success the very much more important factor of quality. The effect of attention to quality, upon every man in the service, from the president of the concern down to the humblest laborer, cannot be overestimated.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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 girls and boys who have good within them and ability and ambition to develop it as the founding of a public library.

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

I wish to have as my epitaph: 'Here lies a man who was wise enough to bring into his service men who knew more than he.'