Dale Carnegie Quotes

American writer and lecturer (1888-1955)

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Dale Harbison Carnegie [originally Carnagey until 1919] (November 24, 1888 – November 1, 1955) was an American writer, lecturer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking and interpersonal skills. Born in poverty on a farm in Missouri, he was the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, first published in 1936, a massive bestseller that remains popular today. He also wrote a biography of Abraham Lincoln, entitled Lincoln the Unknown, as well as several other books.

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Birth Name: Dale Arley Carnegey

Native Name: Dale Arley Carnegie

Alternative Names: Dale Breckenridge Carnegie • Dale Harbison Carnagey • Dale Harbison Carnegie • Dale Carnagey

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Affirmation, in contrast to flattery, requires seeing someone well enough to sense what to affirm, knowing someone well enough to be aware of what really matters. Flattery is usually an admittance of insensibility, a betrayal of trust. We say things we think we should say, but in reality we aren’t thinking at all. What message does flattery send? “You don’t matter enough for me to pay you much mind.

In almost any subject, your passion for the subject will save you. If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it. If you wish to be good, you will be good. If you wish to be rich, you will be rich. If you wish to be learned, you will be learned. Only then you must really wish these things and wish them with exclusiveness and not wish one hundred other incompatible things just as strongly.

If you want to gather honey, don't kick over the beehive.

Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have.

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

Remember, happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have, it depends solely upon what you think.

If you believe you will fail, there is no hope for you. You will.

When one person yells the other should listen. When two people yell, there’s no communication.

It took me years and cost me countless thousands of dollars in lost business before I finally learned that it doesn’t pay to argue, that it is much more profitable and much more interesting to look at things from the other person’s viewpoint and try to get that person saying ‘yes, yes.

The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.

First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst.

God himself, sir, does not propose to judge man until the end of his days.” Why should you and I?

First, arouse in the other person an eager want. He who can do this has the whole world with him. He who cannot walks a lonely way.

Beginning with praise is like the dentist who begins his work with Novocain. The patient still gets a drilling, but the Novocain is pain-killing.

Whenever you go out-of-doors, draw the chin in, carry the crown of the head high, and fill the lungs to the utmost; drink in the sunshine; greet your friends with a smile, and put soul into every handclasp.