Andrew Carnegie
(1835-1919)

Scottish-American businessman, philanthropist

birthdate: November 25
birthplace:
Dunfermline, Scotland

QUOTES

HAPPINESS
“There is little success where there is little laughter.”

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

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

LITERACY
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.

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. They never pauperize. They reach the aspiring and open to these chief treasures of the world -- those stored up in books. A taste for reading drives out lower tastes.

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

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

“Aim for the highest.”

“Whatever I engage in, I must push inordinately.”

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

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

MORE QUOTES

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

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

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

“Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.”

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

A man who dies rich, dies disgraced.

“No man can become rich without himself enriching others”

“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.”

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. ... 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.

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

“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.”

 

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