I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle.
Interpretation
Strong individuals understand the importance of compromise to uphold greater principles.
In this quote, Andrew Carnegie highlights the wisdom of strong men who recognize that not all principles are absolute. Instead, they know that sometimes it's necessary to compromise on certain values in order to uphold and serve a higher moral or ethical principle, demonstrating a nuanced understanding of strength and leadership.
In practice
In a team meeting discussing project deadlines and responsibilities.
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.
The higher the hill, the stronger the wind: so the loftier the life, the stronger the enemy's temptations.
Fear of ideas makes us impotent and ineffective.
Silence, as someone has said, is the mother of prayer and the nurse of holy thoughts. Silence cuts down on our sins, doesn't it? We can't be sinning in so many different ways if we are being quiet before God. Silence nourishes patience, charity, discretion.
Temperance and labor are the two real physicians of man.
As the water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it, so a wise man adapts himself to circumstances.
Repressed anger becomes a temporary madness. Something happens which is beyond your control. If you could have controlled, you would have controlled it still -- but suddenly it was overflowing. Suddenly it was beyond you. You couldn't do anything, you felt helpless -- and it came out. Such a person may not be angry, but he moves and lives in anger.
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