Top 300 Dale Carnegie Quotes (2025 Update)
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201. “If we want to make friends, let’s greet people with animation and enthusiasm.”

— Dale Carnegie

202. “The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.”

— Dale Carnegie

203. “Patience and perserverance will accomplish more in this world than a brilliant dash. Remember that when something goes wrong.”

— Dale Carnegie

204. “Winning friends begins with friendliness.”

— Dale Carnegie

205. “Most people don’t remember names, for the simple reason that they don’t take the time and energy necessary to concentrate and repeat and fix names indelibly in their minds. They make excuses for themselves; they are too busy.”

— Dale Carnegie

206. “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

207. “Let’s never try to get even with our enemies, because if we do we will hurt ourselves far more than we hurt them. Let’s do as General Eisenhower does: let’s never waste a minute thinking about people we don’t like.”

— Dale Carnegie

208. “If you got it, ask yourself why and try to repeat the action. If you failed, ask yourself why and try to learn from the experience.”

— Dale Carnegie

209. “Check up each week on the progress you are making. Ask yourself what mistakes you have made, what improvement, what lessons you have learned for the future.”

— Dale Carnegie

210. “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

211. “Always avoid the acute angle.”

— Dale Carnegie

212. “Try leaving a trail of little sparks of gratitude on your daily trips. You will be surprised how they will set small flames of friendship that will be rose beacons on your next visit.”

— Dale Carnegie

213. “You must have a good time meeting people if you expect them to have a good time meeting you.”

— Dale Carnegie

214. “Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.”

— Dale Carnegie

215. “Do the very best you can.”

— Dale Carnegie

216. “Flattery is counterfeit, and like counterfeit money, it will eventually get you into trouble if you pass it to someone else.”

— Dale Carnegie

217. “If we merely try to impress people and get people interested in us, we will never have many true, sincere friends. Friends, real friends, are not made that way.”

— Dale Carnegie

218. “If you disagree with them you may be tempted to interrupt. But don’t. It is dangerous. They won’t pay attention to you while they still have a lot of ideas of their own crying for expression. So listen patiently and with an open mind.”

— Dale Carnegie

219. “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

220. “Why talk about what we want? That is childish. Absurd. Of course, you are interested in what you want. You are eternally interested in it. But no one else is. The rest of us are just like you: we are interested in what we want.”

— Dale Carnegie

221. “Pay less attention to what men say. Just watch what they do.”

— Dale Carnegie

222. “If you want to win friends, make it a point to remember them. If you remember my name, you pay me a subtle compliment; you indicate that I have made an impression on you. Remember my name and you add to my feeling of importance.”

— Dale Carnegie

223. “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.”

— Dale Carnegie

224. “Let us not get so busy or live so fast that we can’t listen to the music of the meadow or the symphony that glorifies the forest. Some things in the world are far more important than wealth; one of them is the ability to enjoy simple things.”

— Dale Carnegie

225. “Don’t fuss about trifles. Don’t permit little things-the mere termites of life-to ruin your happiness.”

— Dale Carnegie

226. “There is no such thing as constructive criticism.”

— Dale Carnegie

227. “The unvarnished truth is that almost all the people you meet feel themselves superior to you in some way, and a sure way to their hearts is to let them realize in some subtle way that you recognize their importance, and recognize it sincerely.”

— Dale Carnegie

228. “An old man was asked what had robbed him of joy in his life. His reply was, “Things that never happened.””

— Dale Carnegie

229. “If we want to find happiness, let’s stop thinking about gratitude or ingratitude and give for the inner joy of giving.”

— Dale Carnegie

230. “The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don’t like their rules, whose would you use?”

— Dale Carnegie

231. “The ability to speak well is the shortcut to distinction.”

— Dale Carnegie

232. “Good leaders are scarce; so I’m following myself.”

— Dale Carnegie

233. “When the friendly jailer gave Socrates the poison cup to drink, the jailer said: “Try to bear lightly what needs must be.” Socrates did. He faced death with a calmness and resignation that touched the hem of divinity.”

— Dale Carnegie

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

— Dale Carnegie

235. “The way to defeat fear: decide on a course of conduct and follow it. Keep so busy and work so hard that you forget about being afraid.”

— Dale Carnegie

236. “History has repeatedly been changed by people who had the desire and the ability to transfer their convictions and emotions to their listeners.”

— Dale Carnegie

237. “You can’t get anywhere in this world without wanting to do something.”

— Dale Carnegie

238. “If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work.”

— Dale Carnegie

239. “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

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

— Dale Carnegie

241. “Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt. Relevant detail, couched in concrete, colorful language, is the best way to recreate the incident as it happened and to picture it for the audience.”

— Dale Carnegie

242. “Don’t you have much more faith in ideas that you discover for yourself than in ideas that are handed to you on a silver platter?”

— Dale Carnegie

243. “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

244. “Advertising. The movies do it. TV does it. Why don’t you do it?”

— Dale Carnegie

245. “The difference between appreciation and flattery? That is simple. One is sincere and the other insincere. One comes from the heart out; the other from the teeth out. One is unselfish; the other selfish. One is universally admired; the other universally condemned.”

— Dale Carnegie

246. “Give your problem all the thought you possibly can before a solution is reached. But when the matter is settled and over with, worry not at all.”

— Dale Carnegie

247. “The world is filled with interesting things to do. Don’t lead a dull life in such a thrilling world.”

— Dale Carnegie

248. “By all means take thought for the tomorrow, yes, careful thought and planning and preparation. But have no anxiety.”

— Dale Carnegie

249. “You are something new in this world. Never before, since the beginning of time, has there ever been anybody exactly like you; and never again throughout all the ages to come will there ever be anybody exactly like you again.”

— Dale Carnegie

250. “It is the way we react to circumstances that determines our feelings.”

— Dale Carnegie