Dale Carnegie Quotes

163 Sourced Quotes

In fact, merely writing the facts on a piece of paper and stating our problem clearly goes a long way toward helping us to reach a sensible decision.

Dale Carnegie
Let us praise even the slightest improvement. That inspires the other person to keep on improving.

Dale Carnegie
I often went fishing up in Maine during the summer. Personally I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing, I didn't think about what I wanted. I thought about what they wanted. I didn't bait the hook with strawberries and cream. Rather, I dangled a worm or grasshopper in front of the fish and said: "Wouldn't you like to have that?"
Why not use the same common sense when fishing for people?

Dale Carnegie
You can measure the size of a person by what makes him or her angry

Dale Carnegie
Be honest, Look for areas where you can admit error and say so. Apologize for your mistakes. It will help disarm your opponents and reduce defensiveness.

Dale Carnegie
If some people are so hungry for a feeling of importance that they actually go insane to get it, imagine what miracle you and I can achieve by giving people honest appreciation this side of insanity.

Dale Carnegie
If you want to know how to make people shun you and laugh at you behind your back and even despise you, here is the recipe: Never listen to anyone for long. Talk incessantly about yourself. If you have an idea while the other person is talking, don't wait for him or her to finish: bust right in and interrupt in the middle of a sentence.

Dale Carnegie
The words "Think and Thank" are inscribed in many of the Cromwellian churches of England. These words ought to be inscribed in our hearts, too: "Think and Thank". Think of all we have to be grateful for, and thank God for all our boons and bounties.

Dale Carnegie
Benjamin Franklin, tactless in his youth, became so diplomatic, so adroit at handling people that he was made American Ambassador to France. The secret of his success? "I will speak ill of no man," he said, "... and speak all the good I know of everybody." Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving. "A great man shows his greatness," says Carlyle, "by the way he treats little men."

Dale Carnegie
Listen first. Give your opponents a chance to talk. Let them finish. Do not resist, defend or debate. This only raises barriers. Try to build bridges of understanding.

Dale Carnegie
All the king's horses and all the king's men can't put the past together again. So let's remember: Don't try to saw sawdust.

Dale Carnegie
We can all endure disaster and tragedy, and triumph over them-if we have to. We may not think we can, but we have surprisingly strong inner resources that will see us through if we will only make use of them. We are stronger than we think.

Dale Carnegie
Tomorrow you may want to persuade somebody to do something. Before you speak, pause and as yourself, "How can I make this person want to do it?

Dale Carnegie
How often we all have heard speakers begin by calling the attention of the audience to their lack of preparation or lack of ability. If you are not prepared, the audience will probably discover it without your assistance.

Dale Carnegie
It never hurts a fool to appear before an audience, for his capacity is not a capacity for feeling.

Dale Carnegie
Let's cease thinking of our accomplishments, our wants. Let's try to figure out the other man's good points. Then forget flattery. Give honest, sincere appreciation. Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise, and people will cherish your words and treasure them and repeat them over a lifetime - repeat them years after you have forgotten them.

Dale Carnegie
Looking at the other person's point of view and arousing in him an eager want for something is not to be construed as manipulating that person so that he will do something that is only for your benefit and his detriment. Each party should gain from the negotiation.

Dale Carnegie
People are not interested in you. They are not interested in me. They are interested in themselves - morning, noon and after dinner.

Dale Carnegie
Happiness is largely an attitude of mind, of viewing life from the right angle.

Dale Carnegie
Don't fuss about trifles. Don't permit little things-the mere termites of life-to ruin your happiness.

Dale Carnegie
There is only one excuse for a speaker's asking the attention of his audience: he must have either truth or entertainment for them.

Dale Carnegie
Seventy per cent of all patients who come to physicians could cure themselves if they got rid of their fears and worries.

Dale Carnegie
Look your audience straight in the eyes, and begin to talk as if every one of them owed you money.

Dale Carnegie
I wasn't interested in making a lot of money, but I was interested in making a lot of living.

Dale Carnegie
Millions of people have wrecked their lives in angry turmoil, because they refused to accept the worst; refused to try to improve upon it; refused to salvage what they could from the wreck. Instead of trying to reconstruct their fortunes, they engaged in a bitter and "violent contest with experience"- and ended up victims of that brooding fixation known as melancholia.

Dale Carnegie
Instead of condemning people, let's try to understand them. Let's try to figure out why they do what they do. That's a lot more profitable and intriguing than criticism; and it breeds sympathy, tolerance and kindness.

Dale Carnegie
When we are not engaged in thinking about some definite problem, we usually spend about 95 percent of our time thinking about ourselves. Now, if we stop thinking about ourselves for a while and begin to think of the other person's good points, we won't have to resort to flattery so cheap and false that it can be spotted almost before it is out of the mouth.

Dale Carnegie
When we have a brilliant idea, instead of making others think it is ours, why not let them cook and stir the idea themselves.

Dale Carnegie
Our mental attitude is the x factor that determines our fate.

Dale Carnegie
Remember that other people may be totally wrong. But they don't think so. Don't condemn them. Any fool can do that. Try to understand them. Only wise, tolerant, exceptional people even try to do that.

Dale Carnegie