More from and about
Dale Carnegie
(biographical info at bottom of page)

  

If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there
and worrying.  It's the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep.

   

You are something new in this world.  Be glad of it.  Make the most of what nature gave you.  In the last analysis, all art is autobiographical.  You can sing only what you are.  You can paint only what you are.  You must be what your experiences, your environment, and your heredity have made you.  For better or for worse, you must cultivate your own little garden.  For better or for worse, you must play your own little instrument in the orchestra of life.

      
You can sing only what you are.  You can paint only what you are.  You must be what your experiences, your environment, and your heredity have made you.  For better or for worse, you must play your own little instrument in the orchestra of life.


If you want to gather honey, don't kick over the beehive.  If only the people who worry about their liabilities would think about the riches they do possess, they would stop worrying.
  
  
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?
  
Are you bored with life?  Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.
   

Today is the only time we can possibly live.

     

When we hate our enemies, we are giving them power over us:
power over our sleep, our appetites, our blood pressure, our health, and our happiness.

   

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The best possible way to prepare for tomorrow is to concentrate with all
your intelligence, all your enthusiasm, on doing today's work superbly today.
That is the only possible way you can prepare for the future.

   

You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of
this world's happiness now.  How? By giving a few words of sincere
appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged.  Perhaps you
will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the
recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.

   

The expression one wears on one's face is far more
important than the clothes one wears on one's back.

   

  

Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so.

    
Dale Carnegie (November 24, 1888 - November 1, 1955) was a pioneer in self-improvement, salesmanship, and corporate training programs, and became famous for courses he developed that emphasized 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, which has sold over 15 million copies through many editions and remains popular today.  He also wrote a biography of Abraham Lincoln titled Lincoln the Unknown and several other books.

Carnegie was an early proponent of what is now called responsibility assumption.  One of the core ideas in his books is that it is possible to change other people's behavior by changing one's reaction to them.

Born in 1888 in Maryville, Missouri, Carnegie was a poor farmer's boy, apparently not seeing a train until he was twelve years old.  In his teens, though still having to get up at 4 a.m. every day to milk his parents' cows, he managed to get educated at the State Teacher's College in Warrensburg.  His first job after college was selling correspondence courses to ranchers, then he moved on to selling bacon, soap, and lard for Armour & Company.  He was successful to the point of making his sales territory, southern Omaha, the national leader for the firm.

  

    

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Other people:  Alan Watts - Albert Einstein - Albert Schweitzer - Andy Rooney - Anne Frank - Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anne Wilson Schaef
- Annie Dillard - Anthony Robbins - Ari Kiev - Artur Rubenstein - Barbara Johnson - Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Franklin
- Benjamin Hoff - Bernie Siegel - Bertrand Russell - Betty Eadie - Booker T. Washington
Charlotte Davis Kasl
- Cheryl Richardson - Cristina Feldman - C.S. Lewis - the Dalai Lama - Dale Carnegie - Deepak Chopra
Don Miguel Ruiz
- Earl Nightingale - Elaine St. James - Eleanor Roosevelt - Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emmet Fox
- Frederick Buechner - George Bernard Shaw - George Santayana - George Washington Carver - Gerald Jampolsky
Harold Kushner
- Harry Emerson Fosdick - Helen Keller - Henry David Thoreau - Henry James - Henry Van Dyke
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Henry Ward Beecher - Hugh Prather - Immanuel Kant - Iyanla Vanzant - Jack Canfield
James Allen
- Jennifer James - Jim Rohn - Joan Borysenko - Joan Chittister - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - John Izzo
John Ruskin
- Joni Eareckson Tada - Joseph M. Marshall III - Julia Cameron - Kent Nerburn - Khalil Gibran
Leo Buscaglia
- Leonard Jacobson - Leslie Levine - Lucinda Bassett - Lydia Maria Child - Lynn Grabhorn - Marcus Aurelius
Marianne Williamson
- Martin Luther King, Jr. - Maya Angelou - Melody Beattie - Michael Goddart - Mitch Albom
Mohandas Gandhi
- Morrie Schwartz - Mother Teresa - M. Scott Peck - Nathaniel Branden - Nikos Kazantzakis - Norman Cousins
Norman Vincent Peale
- Og Mandino - Oprah Winfrey - Oriah - Orison Swett Marden - Pau Casals - Peace Pilgrim - Phillips Brooks
Rabindranath Tagore
- Rachel Carson - Rachel Naomi Remen - Rainer Maria Rilke - Ralph Waldo Trine - Richard Bach
Richard Carlson
- Robert Frost - Robert Fulghum - Robert Louis Stevenson - Russell Baker - Sarah Ban Breathnach
Shakti Gawain
- Soren Kierkegaard - Stephen Covey - Stephen C. Paul - Sue Patton Thoele - Susan L. Taylor
Sylvia Boorstein
- Thich Nhat Hanh - Thomas Carlyle - Thomas Kinkade - Thomas Merton - Tom Walsh - Victor Cherbuliez
Wayne Dyer
- Wilferd A. Peterson - Willa Cather - William James - William Wordsworth - Zig Ziglar

   

      
    

Yes, life can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's actually rather dependable and reliable.  Some principles apply to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning.  I use it a lot when I teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.  What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or generous, compassionate or arrogant?  In this book, I've done my best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life, writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.  Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too!
Universal Principles of Living Life Fully.  Awareness of these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration out of the lives we lead.