"Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community."
— Andrew Carnegie
Surplus Wealth Is A Sacred Trust
Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.
About this quote
From "The Gospel of Wealth" (1889), Carnegie's foundational text on the moral obligations of the very rich. Carnegie argued that concentrated wealth was an inevitable product of industrial civilization, but that the wealthy held it as trustees for the public good. He spent the last eighteen years of his life giving away virtually his entire fortune, funding over 2,500 public libraries worldwide.
Source
The Gospel of Wealth, North American Review, June 1889
