Andrew Carnegie

“To summarize what I have said: Aim for the highest; never enter a bar-room; do not touch liquor, or if at all only at meals; never speculate; never indorse beyond your surplus cash fund; make the firm’s interest yours; break orders always to save owners; concentrate; put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket; expenditure always within revenue; lastly, be not impatient, for, as Emerson says, “no one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourselves.” I congratulate poor young men upon being born to that ancient and honourable degree which renders it necessary that they should devote themselves to hard work. A basketful of bonds is the heaviest basket a young man ever had to carry. He generally gets to staggering under it. We have in this city creditable instances of such young men, who have pressed to the front rank of our best and most useful citizens. These deserve great credit. But the vast majority of the sons of rich men are unable to resist the temptations to which wealth subjects them, and sink to unworthy lives. I would almost as soon leave a young man a curse, as burden him with the almighty dollar. It is not from this class you have rivalry to fear. The partner’s sons will not trouble you much, but look out that some boys poorer, much poorer than yourselves, whose parents cannot afford to give them the advantages of a course in this institute, advantages which should give you a decided lead in the race–look out that such boys do not challenge you at the post and pass you at the grand stand. Look out for the boy who has to plunge into work direct from the common school and who begins by sweeping out the office. He is the probable dark horse that you had better watch.”

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

“A 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.”

“الانسان الذي يمكنه إتقان الصبر... يمكنه إتقان أي شئ آخر”

“Perhaps the most tragic thing about mankind is that we are all dreaming about some magical garden over the horizon, instead of enjoying the roses that are right outside today.”

“This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: To set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent on 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 judgement, 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.”

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

“Do real and permanent good in this world.”

“Man does not live by bread alone. I have known millionaires starving for lack of the nutriment which alone can sustain all that is human in man, and I know workmen, and many so-called poor men, who revel in luxuries beyond the power of those millionaires to reach. 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. Exalted beyond this, as it sometimes is, it remains Caliban still and still plays the beast. 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”

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

“ You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb a little.”

“No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.”

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

“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. ”

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

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

“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.”

“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”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“Here lies one who knew how to get around him men who were cleverer than himself”

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

“Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.”

“We cannot afford to lose the Negro. We have urgent need of all and more. Let us therefore turn our efforts to making the best of him. ”

“The man who dies rich, dies disgraced.”

“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.”

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