The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.
Quote
The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.
The story behind this quote
The sentence ends the article “Wealth”, which Carnegie published in June 1889 in the North American Review. His argument: the rich man should live without ostentation, provide moderately for those who depend on him, and treat the rest of his fortune as a trust to be administered for the community during his lifetime. He foresees a day when leaving millions behind at death will bring no honour: such a man “will pass away ‘unwept, unhonored, and unsung’”, in words borrowed from Walter Scott. “Of such as these the public verdict will then be” the line.
Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant who had started as a bobbin boy in a Pittsburgh cotton mill, was then the greatest steelmaster in America. Reprinted in Britain under the title “The Gospel of Wealth”, the article kept that name and drew a reply from Gladstone.
He practised what he preached: after selling his company in 1901 he gave away most of his fortune, to more than 2,500 public libraries among other causes, and his gospel is still cited by billionaire philanthropists.
The source
Wealth (The Gospel of Wealth), North American Review, 1889
Checked word for word in the work itself.
Author
Andrew Carnegie
The son of a poor Scottish weaver who emigrated to Pennsylvania, Andrew Carnegie built the largest steel company in the world and sold it in 1901, becoming one of the richest men in history. He then gave away most of his fortune, funding some 2,500…
Quotes by Andrew Carnegie