Upon the sacredness of property civilization itself depends-the right of the laborer to his hundred dollars in the savings bank, and equally the legal right of the millionaire to his millions.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of property rights for both the laborer and the wealthy, as foundational to civilization.
Andrew Carnegie's quote underscores the essential role that property rights play in maintaining the structure of civilization. By asserting that both the modest savings of a laborer and the vast wealth of a millionaire are equally sacred, Carnegie highlights the significance of legal rights to ownership as crucial for societal stability and progress. This perspective advocates for a system where all individuals, regardless of their economic standing, are afforded the same respect for their property.
In practice
In a speech about economic fairness, one could use this quote to illustrate the essential nature of property rights.
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.
There is a perverse mood of the mind which is rather soothed than irritated by misconstruction; and in quarters where we can never be rightly known, we take pleasure, I think, in being consummately ignored. What honest man on being casually taken for a housebreaker does not feel rather tickled than vexed at the mistake?
Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance.
Negativity is often looked upon [in the USA] as a kind of thought crime. Not since the advent of socialist realism has the world witnessed such pathological upbeatness.
Simply from the fact that we have regarded a thing with the emotion of pleasure or pain, though that thing be not the efficient cause of the emotion, we can either love or hate it.
Whoever is going to listen to the philosophers needs a considerable practice in listening.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance.
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