Andrew Carnegie, as quoted in: "An Imperial Moment" (December 5, 2002), by Jonathan Schell and John Maxwell Hamilton at The Nation.

To be popular is easy; to be right when right is unpopular, is noble... I repudiate with scorn the immoral doctrine, 'Our country, right or wrong'.

— Andrew Carnegie on Countries

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "To be popular is easy; to be right when right is unpopular, is noble... I repudiate with scorn the immoral doctrine, 'Our country, right or wrong'." in the context of "Andrew Carnegie, as quoted in: "An Imperial Moment" (December 5, 2002), by Jonathan Schell and John Maxwell Hamilton at The Nation." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Countries" (Quotes, C) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Andrew Carnegie

About Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie (25 November 1835 – 11 August 1919) was a Scottish-American businessman, a major philanthropist, and the founder of the Carnegie Steel Company, which later became U.S. Steel.