Criticism is futile because it puts a person on the defensive and usually makes them strive to justify themselves. Criticism is dangerous, because it wounds a person’s precious pride, hurts their sense of importance, and arouses resentment.
Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.
If you are not in the process of becoming the person you want to be, you are automatically engaged in becoming the person you don’t want to be.
Today is our most precious possession. It is our only sure possession.
To be interesting, be interested.
Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
Let us praise even the slightest improvement. That inspires the other person to keep on improving.
If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.
Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.
Even in such technical lines as engineering, about 15% of one’s financial success is due one’s technical knowledge and about 85% is due to skill in human engineering, to personality and the ability to lead people.
Excitement radiates through your eyes, your face, your voice, your soul, and your whole personality.
By talking to yourself about the things you have to be grateful for you can fill your mind with thoughts that soar and sing.
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.
Confusion is the main cause of worry.
In time, we lose our freshness and spontaneity of true conversation. These are areas in which everyone interested in self-improvement will seek to improve.
Hurting a man in his dignity is a crime.
A barber lathers a man before he shaves him.
How to Win Friends and Influence People.
The best argument is that which seems merely an explanation.
Merely stating a truth isn’t enough. The truth has to be made vivid, interesting, dramatic. You have to use showmanship.
We can’t win friends with a scowling face and an upbraiding voice.