Dale Carnegie
Carnegie (1888-1955), born in Maryville, Missouri, started out as a travelling salesman. He began teaching public speaking at a New York YMCA in 1912. His book Art of Public Speaking was published in 1915. He became a well known public speaker, and a pioneer in personality development, eventually teaching private courses and creating a chain of schools. He is perhaps best known for his 1936 book How to Win Friends and Influence People, which has sold over 10 million copies in 30 languages.
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?
First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst.
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 man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from the shore.
When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.
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.
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.
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 help at all.
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.
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.
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965), was an author, orator, statesman, member of Parliment, cabinet secretary, and the British Prime Minister who lead England through the trying years of World War II. His inspirational speaking held his country together through the 'blitz' of German bombardment, while his negotiating skills held together the shaky alliance between the US and Russia. After the war, he coined the phrase 'iron curtain' to describe Soviet control of eastern Europe. Churchill was knighted for his service and awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 for his book The Second World War.
The price of greatness is responsibility.
The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.
Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught
Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party.
He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
I have never accepted what many people have kindly said—namely that I inspired the nation. Their will was resolute and remorseless, and as it proved, unconquerable. It fell to me to express it. - on his 80th birthday, address to Parliament 11/30/54
Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.
If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would have English Channels round every country. And the atmosphere would be such that anything which attempted to fly would be set on fire.
No comment is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.
My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time -- a tremendous whack.
War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.
Eating words has never given me indigestion.
Politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.
Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time.