The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship.
Interpretation
Wealth must be managed wisely to maintain harmony between the rich and the poor.
Andrew Carnegie highlights the importance of wealth administration in society, emphasizing that how wealth is handled can either strengthen or weaken the bonds between different social classes. His call for proper management reflects a deeper societal concern where equitable distribution is essential for unity and cohesion, aligning the interests of both the affluent and the less fortunate.
In practice
In a speech about economic inequality, highlighting Carnegie's insight could inspire productive dialogue.
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.
To kill a man will be considered as disgusting [in the twentieth century] as we in this day consider it disgusting to eat one.
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.
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.
Speculation is a parasite feeding upon values, creating none.
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.
Clouds and darkness surround us, yet Heaven is just, and the day of triumph will surely come, when justice and truth will be vindicated.
Time will discover everything to posterity; it is a babbler, and speaks even when no question is put.
We've learned how to destroy, but not to create; how to waste, but not to build; how to kill men, but not how to save them; how to die, but seldom how to live.
There is enough for everyone. People think that there isn't enough, so they get as much as they can, so many people don't have enough.
I think that if one is faced by inevitable destruction -- if a house is falling upon you, for instance -- one must feel a great longing to sit down, close one's eyes and wait, come what may . . .
The same stream of life that runs through the world runs through my veins night and day.
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