Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history. He became a leading philanthropist in the United States and in the British Empire. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away ~$350 million (roughly $5.2 billion in 2019) to many charities, foundations, and universities – almost 90 percent of his fortune. These Andrew Carnegie quotes will motivate you.
Andrew Carnegie Quotes
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “Wealth is not to feed our egos but to feed the hungry and to help people help themselves.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “The greatest astonishment of my life was the discovery that the man who does the work is not the man who gets rich” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
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“The sole purpose of being rich is to give away money.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Carnegie quotes on real estate
- “Show me a man of average ability but extraordinary desire and I’ll show you a winner every time.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
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“Young man, make your name worth something.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “The older I get the less I listen to what people say and the more I look at what they do.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
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“The secret of success lies not in doing your own work, but in recognizing the right man to do it.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never-failing spring in the desert.” ~ Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Carnegie quotes on library
- “Strength is derived from unity. The range of our collective vision is far greater when individual insights become one.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Carnegie quotes on teamwork
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“The secret of happiness is renunciation.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “If thou dost not sow, thou shalt not reap.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
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“Do your duty and a little more and the future will take care of itself.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “The rare individuals who unselfishly try to serve others have an enormous advantage-they have little competition.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “The battle of life is already half won by the young man who is brought in contact with high officials, and the great aim of every boy should be to do something beyond the sphere of his duties- something which attracts the attention of those over him.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
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“Strong men don’t compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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
- “He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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
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“The more difficult a problem becomes, the more interesting it is.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “There is no use whatsoever in trying to help people who do not help themselves.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “The best time to expand is when no one else dares to take risks” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “One great cause of failure of young men in business is lack of concentration.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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
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“No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “Success is the power to acquire whatever one demands of life without violating the rights of others.” ~ Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Carnegie quotes on success
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs.” ~ Andrew Carnegie quotes
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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
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“The man who dies rich dies disgraced.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he be willing to climb a little himself.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “Watch the costs and the profits will take care of themselves.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “There is little success where there is little laughter.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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
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“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.'” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
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“Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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
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“Success can be attained in any branch of labor. There’s always room at the top in every pursuit.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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
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“Do real and permanent good in this world.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “My hopes were high, and I looked every day for some change to take place. What it was to be I knew not, but that it would come I felt certain if I kept on. One day the chance came.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “Anything in life worth having is worth working for.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “I have had a long, long life full of troubles, but there is one curious fact about them-nine-tenths of them never happened.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
- “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.” ~ Andrew Carnegie
