Top 120 Andrew Carnegie Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Pioneering don’t pay.”

— Andrew Carnegie

52. “Men who reach decisions promptly usually have the capacity to move with definiteness of purpose in other circumstances.”

— Andrew Carnegie

53. “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.”

— Andrew Carnegie

54. “A sunny disposition is worth more than fortune.”

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

56. “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.”

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

58. “He that cannot reason is a fool.”

— Andrew Carnegie

59. “Strong men don’t compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.”

— Andrew Carnegie

60. “East or West Home is best.”

— Andrew Carnegie

61. “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.”

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

65. “The only irreplaceable capital an organization possesses is the knowledge and ability of its people. The productivity of that capital depends on how effectively people share their competence with those who can use it.”

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

68. “All is well since all grows better.”

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

71. “Do real and permanent good in this world.”

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

74. “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.”

— Andrew Carnegie

75. “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.”

— Andrew Carnegie

76. “Mutual ignorance breeds mutual distrust.”

— Andrew Carnegie

77. “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.”

— Andrew Carnegie

78. “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...”

— Andrew Carnegie

79. “Men are developed the same way gold is mined. When gold is mined, several tons of dirt must be moved to get an ounce of gold; but one doesn’t go into the mine looking for dirt – one goes in looking for the gold.”

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

81. “Three generations from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves.”

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

83. “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.”

— Andrew Carnegie

84. “Speculation is a parasite feeding upon values, creating none.”

— Andrew Carnegie

85. “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.”

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

88. “There is scarcely an instance of a man who has made a fortune by speculation and kept it.”

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

91. “Steel is prince or pauper.”

— Andrew Carnegie

92. “All honor’s wounds are self-inflicted.”

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

94. “That 95 per cent. fail of those who start in business upon their own account seems incredible, and yet such are said to be the statistics upon the subject.”

— Andrew Carnegie

95. “There is no way of making a business successful that can vie with the policy of promoting those who render exceptional service.”

— Andrew Carnegie

96. “The worlds civilization started from the day on which everyone received reward for labour.”

— Andrew Carnegie

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

— Andrew Carnegie

98. “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.”

— Andrew Carnegie

99. “The man who dies leaving behind him millions of available wealth, which was his to administer during his life, will pass away unwept, unhonoured and insung no matter to what uses he leaves the dross which he cannot take with him.”

— Andrew Carnegie

100. “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.”

— Andrew Carnegie