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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I had done my best, and that my lack of experience, not my lack of ability, was the reason for the failure.

We learn by doing.

BE A LEADER A leader’s job often includes changing your people’s attitudes and behaviour. Some suggestions to accomplish this: PRINCIPLE 1 Begin with praise and honest appreciation. PRINCIPLE 2 Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly. PRINCIPLE 3 Talk about your own mistakes before criticising the other person. PRINCIPLE 4 Ask questions instead of giving direct orders. PRINCIPLE 5 Let the other person save face. PRINCIPLE 6 Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be ‘hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.’ PRINCIPLE 7 Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to. PRINCIPLE 8 Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct. PRINCIPLE 9 Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

To recall a voter’s name is statesmanship. To forget it is oblivion.

Nobody in the heavens above or on the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth will ever object to your saying: ‘I may be wrong. Let’s examine the facts.

The Sea of Galilee is teeming with fish and life,” the priest began. “The Dead Sea is dead and devoid of life. They are both fed by the sparkling water of the River Jordan, so what’s the difference? The Sea of Galilee gives all its water away. The Dead Sea keeps it all for itself. Like the Dead Sea, when we keep all that is fresh and good for ourselves, we turn our lives into a briny soup of salty tears.

Exclusive attention to the person who is speaking to you is very important. Nothing else is so flattering as that.

Sigmund Freud said that everything you and I do springs from two motives: the sex urge and the desire to be great.

The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding — this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years.

Le monde est plein d’individus avides et égoïstes. C’est pourquoi l’être exceptionnel qui s’efforce de servir autrui généreusement et sans arrière-pensée possède un énorme avantage sur le reste de l’humanité, car il ne rencontre guère de
concurrence.

For “the great aim of education,” said Herbert Spencer, “is not knowledge but action.” And

Many persons call a doctor when all they want is an audience.

Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. …

popularity, my happiness and sense of worth depend to no small extent upon my skill in dealing with people.

In looking over a letter of one of his assistants, he would say, “Maybe if we were to phrase it this way it would be better.” He always gave people the opportunity to do things themselves; he never told his assistants to do things; he let them do them, let them learn from their mistakes.