57 Best Dale Carnegie Quotes

Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) was a writer, lecturer, and creator of famous self-improvement courses, corporate training, interpersonal relationship management, and public speaking skills.

Born in Missouri from an impoverished family, he is the author of the bestseller ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People,‘ whose first edition got published in 1936, and subsequently reprinted all over the world.

In his books, which are always very current, Dale Carnegie teaches us that we must believe in our own potential if we really want to achieve something in life.

Its path is the example. As a boy, he had to wake up at dawn to take care of the animals and clean up the stable before going to school. His family was destitute and had many debts. Despite his sacrificed life, Dale managed to finish his studies with excellent results and also to attend college.

His first job was as a seller of courses for farmers; then he became a salesman for Armor & Company, a large Chicago slaughterhouse company; later he followed an acting class at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and returned to Missouri after its trial to become an actor.

Finally, he became a teacher, while in the meantime, he began writing his first books and in 1912 he founded an institution: Dale Carnegie Training.

Today this foundation counts among its clients 400 of the 500 largest American companies, classified by the magazine “Fortune.”

Best Dale Carnegie Quotes

“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that we all tend to put life aside. We are all dreaming of the magical rose garden beyond the horizon, instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today. “
Dale Carnegie

“Criticism is like a carrier pigeon: it always returns where it started from.”
Dale Carnegie

“Act as if you were already happy and that will tend to make you happy”
Dale Carnegie

“Criticism is dangerous, because it wounds a person’s precious pride, hurt his sense of importance and arouses resentment.”
Dale Carnegie

“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.”
Dale Carnegie

“Don’t be afraid of enemies who attack you. Be afraid of the friends who flatter you.”
Dale Carnegie

“For better or worse, you must play your own instrument in the orchestra of life.”
Dale Carnegie

“Many people think that if they were only in some other place, or had some other job, they would be happy. Well, that is doubtful. So get as much happiness out of what you are doing as you can and don’t put off being happy until some future date.”
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

“Only knowledge that is used sticks in your mind.”
Dale Carnegie

“The person who seeks all their applause from outside has their happiness in another’s keeping .”
Dale Carnegie

“Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.”
Dale Carnegie

“Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still.”
Dale Carnegie

“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.”
Dale Carnegie

“Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic”
Dale Carnegie

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
Dale Carnegie

“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”
Dale Carnegie

“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 the happiness that you had thought could never be yours.”
Dale Carnegie

“Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.”
Dale Carnegie

“Happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude”
Dale Carnegie

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

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
Dale Carnegie

“Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration, and resentment”
Dale Carnegie

“There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.”
Dale Carnegie

“When fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade.”
Dale Carnegie

“To be interesting, be interested.”
Dale Carnegie

“Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.”
Dale Carnegie

“You can’t win an argument. You can’t because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it.”
Dale Carnegie

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”
Dale Carnegie

“Arouse in the other person an eager want. He who can do this has the whole world with him. He who cannot walk a lonely way.”
Dale Carnegie

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

“Each nation feels superior to other nations. That breeds patriotism – and wars.”
Dale Carnegie

“Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire”
Dale Carnegie

“I have come to the conclusion that there is only one way under high heaven to get the best of an argument – and that is to avoid it. Avoid it as you would avoid rattlesnakes and earthquakes.”
Dale Carnegie

“Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed possible”
Dale Carnegie

“Tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said.”
Dale Carnegie

“Remember happiness doesn’t depend on who you are or what you have; it depends solely upon what you think”
Dale Carnegie

“Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.”
Dale Carnegie

“There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.”
Dale Carnegie

“You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing.”
Dale Carnegie

“You are merely not feeling equal to the tasks before you.”
Dale Carnegie

“Actions speak louder than words, and a smile says, ‘I like you. You make me happy. I am glad to see you.’”
Dale Carnegie

“Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it… that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.”
Dale Carnegie

“Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.”
Dale Carnegie

“Fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.”
Dale Carnegie

“Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.”
Dale Carnegie

“It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.”
Dale Carnegie

“If only the people who worry about their liabilities would think about the riches they do possess, they would stop worrying.”
Dale Carnegie

“Names are the sweetest, most important sound in any language.”
Dale Carnegie

“The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.”
Dale Carnegie

“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”
Dale Carnegie

“There is only one way… To get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it.”
Dale Carnegie

“You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.
Dale Carnegie