Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegiewas a Scottish-American industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He is often identified as one of the richest people in history, alongside John D. Rockefeller and Jakob Fugger. He built a leadership role as a philanthropist for the United States and the British Empire. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away to charities, foundations, and universities about $350 million– almost 90 percent of his fortune...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth25 November 1835
CityDunfermline, Scotland
The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work.
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.
Any idea that is held in the mind that is either feared or revered will, begin at once to clothe itself in the most convenient and appropriate physical forms available.
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.
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.
Three generations from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves.
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.
The man who dies rich, dies disgraced.
There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else.
Whatever I engage in, I must push inordinately.
He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave.
I resolved to stop accumulating and begin the infinitely more serious and difficult task of wise distribution.
It is more difficult to give money away intelligently than to earn it in the first place.
Pittsburgh entered the core of my heart when I was a boy and cannot be torn out.