Andrew Carnegie

1835–1919 · Scottish-American industrialist, philanthropist & peace campaigner

Andrew Carnegie made the largest steel fortune in America and then spent the rest of his life giving it away — libraries, universities, and, after 1898, the cause of international arbitration. He put $1.5 million into the Peace Palace at The Hague in 1903 and founded the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. So the credit is not absurd: this is genuinely the kind of thing he said, and he said a version of it, on the record, at Carnegie Hall in 1907. But his sentence turns on might and right, and it is about war exposing the wrongdoer — not about counting survivors. The right/left pun is a different, later, anonymous line, and Carnegie was dead twelve years before anyone is known to have printed it.

Traced to source

1 quote we’ve traced

“War does not determine who is right — only who is left”

Disputed

Not actually Andrew Carnegie

Often misattributed to Andrew Carnegie

Famous lines widely pinned on Andrew Carnegie that we’ve traced to someone else.

“He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave”

actually William Drummond

“War does not determine who is right — only who is left”

actually Unknown — anonymous in its first printing

On the research bench

Commonly pinned on Andrew Carnegie — under review

4 lines flagged as pinned on Andrew Carnegie and queued for a full source trace — not yet verified.

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

Disputed

“Three generations from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves.”

Disputed

“To be popular is easy; to be right, when right is unpopular, is noble.”

Disputed

“Watch the costs and the profits take care of themselves.”

Disputed

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