Thoughts and ideas from Dale Carnegie

Dale Carnegie

Dale Breckenridge Carnegie (originally Carnagey until 1922 and possibly somewhat later)
(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 (1936),
a massive bestseller that remains popular today. (from Wikipedia)

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Today is the only time we can possibly live.

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

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.

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.

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One of the tragic things I know about human nature is that all
of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose
garden over the horizon--instead of enjoying the roses
that are blooming outside our windows today.

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.

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.

Would you sell both your eyes for a million dollars. . .
or your two legs…or your hands. . . or your hearing? Add
up what you do have, and you'll find you won't sell them
for all the gold in the world. The best things in life are
yours, if you can appreciate them.

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

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.

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.

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished
by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

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.

One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy is
because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses.

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.

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

The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.
The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.

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.

Even if you are not a religious person by nature or training--even if you are an out-and-out skeptic--prayer can help you much more than you believe, for it is a practical thing. I mean that prayer fulfills these three very basic psychological needs which all people share, whether they believe in God or not:

1. Prayer helps us to put into words exactly what is troubling us. It is almost impossible to deal with a problem while it remains vague and nebulous. Praying, in a way, is very much like writing our problems down on paper. If we ask help for a problem--even from God--we must put it into words.

2. Prayer gives us a sense of sharing our burdens, of not being alone. Few of us are so strong that we can bear our heaviest burdens, our most agonizing troubles, all by ourselves. Sometimes our worries are of so intimate a nature that we cannot discuss them even with our closest relatives or friends. Then prayer is the answer. Any psychiatrist will tell us that when we are pent-up and tense, and in an agony of spirit, it is therapeutically good to tell someone our troubles. When we can't tell anyone else--we can always tell God.

3. Prayer puts into force an active principal of doing. It's a first step toward action. I doubt if anyone can pray for some fulfillment, day after day, without benefiting from it--in other words, without taking some steps to bring it to pass. The world-famous scientist, Dr. Alexis Carrel, said, "Prayer is the most powerful form of energy one can generate." So why not make use of it? Call it God or Allah or Spirit--why quarrel with definitions as long as the mysterious powers of nature take us in hand?

I have gone back--well, I was about to say that I had gone back to religion;
but that would not be accurate. I have gone forward to a new concept of religion.
I no longer have the faintest interest in the differences in creeds that divide the
churches. But I am tremendously interested in what religion does for me, just as
I am interested in what electricity and good food and water do for me. They help
me to lead a richer, fuller, happier life. But religion does far more than that. It brings
me spiritual values. It gives me, as William James puts it, "a new zest for life. . . more
life, a larger, richer, more satisfying life." It gives me faith, hope, and courage.
It banishes tensions, anxieties, fears, and worries. It gives purpose to my life--and
direction. It vastly improves my happiness. It gives me abounding health. It helps
me to create for myself "an oasis of peace amidst the whirling sands of life."

Life is slipping away with incredible speed. We are racing through space
at the rate of nineteen miles every second. Today is our most precious possession.
It is our only sure possession.

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.

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