Andrew Carnegie quotes:

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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%.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.'

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

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

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

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.

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

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

There is little success where there is little laughter.

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

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

No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.

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

Ninety percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.

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

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.

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

All honor's wounds are self-inflicted.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

The man who dies rich, dies disgraced.

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

Whatever I engage in, I must push inordinately.

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

He that cannot reason is a fool.

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

The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship.

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

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

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

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

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.

Touch his head, and he will bargain and argue with you to the last; Touch his heart, and he falls upon your breast.

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

There is no use whatever trying to help people who do not help themselves. You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb himself.

Nothing tells in the long run like a good judgment, and no sound judgment can remain with the man whose mind is disturbed by the mercurial changes of the stock exchange. It places him under an influence akin to intoxication. What is not, he sees, and what he sees, is not.

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

Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.

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

Surplus wealth is a sacred trust to be managed for the good of others.

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

Three generations from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves.

Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Young man, make your name worth something.

While the law [of competition] may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it insures the survival of the fittest in every department. We accept and welcome, therefore, as conditions to which we must accommodate ourselves, great inequality of environment, the concentration of business, industrial and commercial, in the hands of a few, and the law of competition between these, as being not only beneficial, but essential for the future progress of the race.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Mutual ignorance breeds mutual distrust.

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.

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

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...

Anything in life worth having is worth working for.

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

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.

I spent the first half of my life making money and the second half of my life giving it away to do the most good and the least harm.

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.

Capitalism is about turning luxuries into necessities.

Do real and permanent good in this world.

There is no idol more debasing than the worship of money.

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.

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

The secret of happiness is renunciation.

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.

The surest foundation of a manufacturing concern is quality. After that, and a long way after, comes cost.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Concentrate your energy, your thoughts and your capital.

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

Why should men leave great fortunes to their children? If this is done from affection, is it not misguided affection? Observation teaches that, generally speaking, it is not well for the children that they should be so burdened.

I demand riches in definite terms; I have a definite plan for acquiring riches;I am engaged in carrying out my plan, and I am giving an equivalent,in useful service, of the value of those riches I demand.

It is trying to be other than one's self that unmans one. Be your own natural self and go ahead.

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.

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

The man of business knows that only by years of patient, unremitting attention to affairs can he earn his reward, which is the result, not of chance, but of well-devised means for the attainment of ends.

If thou dost not sow, thou shalt not reap,

Pioneering don't pay.

You develop millionaires the way you mine gold. You expect to move tons of dirt to find an ounce of gold, but you don't go into the mine looking for the dirt-you go in looking for the gold.

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

Strength is derived from unity. The range of our collective vision is far greater when individual insights become one.

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

Golf is an indispensable adjunct to high civilisation.

Speculation is a parasite feeding upon values, creating none.

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.