Dale Carnegie was an American author and lecturer in self-improvement, public speaking, interpersonal skills and salesmanship.
He is best known for books like “How To Stop Worrying And Start Living” and “How To Win Friends And Influence People“, a book that has now sold over 30 Millions copies worldwide and translated into many languages.
Even today Dale Carnegie is a household name amongst those in sales and personal development and many of his success principles remain timeless.
I’ve put together 77 Dale Carnegie quotes that will provide you with valuable lessons, insights and wisdom that will help you succeed. Enjoy!
77 Dale Carnegie Quotes
1. “Rule number one: Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.” – Dale Carnegie
2. “You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing.” – Dale Carnegie
3. “All life is a chance. So take it! The person who goes furthest is the one who is willing to do and dare.” – Dale Carnegie
4. “Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.” – Dale Carnegie
5. “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie
6. “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” – Dale Carnegie
7. “Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain – and most fools do.” – Dale Carnegie
8. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” – Dale Carnegie
9. “The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.” – Dale Carnegie
10. “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” – Dale Carnegie
11. “Today is life-the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.” – Dale Carnegie
12. “We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.” – Dale Carnegie
13. “Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire.” – Dale Carnegie
14. “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.” – Dale Carnegie
15. “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
16. “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
17. “You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.” – Dale Carnegie
18. “The person who seeks all their applause from outside has their happiness in another’s keeping.” – Dale Carnegie
19. “First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst.” – Dale Carnegie
20. “Happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude.” – Dale Carnegie
21. “Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment.” – Dale Carnegie
22. “When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.” – Dale Carnegie
23. “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
24. “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
25. “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.” – Dale Carnegie
26. “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.” – Dale Carnegie
27. “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
28. “Only knowledge that is used sticks in your mind.” – Dale Carnegie
29. “Big shots are only little shots who kept on shooting.” – Dale Carnegie
30. “To be interesting, be interested.” – Dale Carnegie
31. “Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.” – Dale Carnegie
32. “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.” – Dale Carnegie
33. “Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, for your character is what you are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” – Dale Carnegie
34. “Keep your mind open to change all the time. Welcome it. Court it. It is only by examining and reexamining your opinions and ideas that you can progress.” – Dale Carnegie
35. “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
36. “If you believe you will fail, there is no hope for you. You will.” – Dale Carnegie
37. “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.” – Dale Carnegie
38. “Find yourself and be yourself: Remember, there is no one else on earth like you.” – Dale Carnegie
39. “When we worry, our minds jump here and there and everywhere, and we lose all power of decision. However, when we force ourselves to face the worst and accept it mentally, we then eliminate all those vague imaginings and put ourselves in a position in which we are able to concentrate on our problem.” – Dale Carnegie
40. “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.” – Dale Carnegie
41. “Pay less attention to what men say. Just watch what they do.” – Dale Carnegie
42. “If we think happy thoughts, we will be happy. If we think miserable thoughts, we will be miserable.” – Dale Carnegie
43. “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
44. “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
45. “Remember, happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely upon what you think. So start each day by thinking of all the things you have to be thankful for. Your future will depend very largely on the thoughts you think today. So think thoughts of hope and confidence and love and success.” – Dale Carnegie
46. “An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing.” – Dale Carnegie
47. “Fear is the result of a lack of confidence. A lack of confidence is the result of not knowing what you can do. A lack of knowing what you can do is caused by a lack of experience. A lack of experience is caused by a lack of doing something new.” – Dale Carnegie
48. “No matter what happens, always be yourself.” – Dale Carnegie
49. “If you want to be happy, set yourself a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes. Happiness is within you. It comes from doing some certain thing into which you can put all your thought and energy. If you want to be happy, get enthusiastic about something.” – Dale Carnegie
50. “Face the thing that seems overwhelming and you will be surprised how your fear will melt away.” – Dale Carnegie
51. “If you do something for someone else, never remember. If someone does something for you, never forget.” – Dale Carnegie
52. “Once you have made a careful decision based on facts, go into action. Don’t stop to reconsider. Don’t begin to hesitate, worry, and retrace your steps. Don’t lose yourself in self-doubting which begets other doubts. Don’t keep looking back over your shoulder.” – Dale Carnegie
53. “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
54. “When we have accepted the worst, we have nothing more to lose. And that automatically means we have everything to gain.” – Dale Carnegie
55. “If you want others to like you, if you want to develop real friendships, if you want to help others at the same time as you help yourself, keep this principle in mind: Become genuinely interested in other people.” – Dale Carnegie
56. “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.” – Dale Carnegie
57. “Believe you will be successful and you will.” – Dale Carnegie
58. “Listen first. Give your opponents a chance to talk. Let them finish. Do not resist, defend or debate. This only raises barriers. Try to build bridges of understanding.” – Dale Carnegie
59. “Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.” – Dale Carnegie
60. “People are not interested in you. They are not interested in me. They are interested in themselves – morning, noon and after dinner.” – Dale Carnegie
61. “If you must make a mistake, make a new one each time.” – Dale Carnegie
62. “When you face a problem, solve it then and there if you have the facts necessary to make a decision. Don’t keep putting off decisions.” – Dale Carnegie
63. “The only way on Earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it.” – Dale Carnegie
64. “Learning is an active process. We learn by doing… Only knowledge that is used sticks in your mind.” – Dale Carnegie
65. “Believe that you will succeed, and you will.” – Dale Carnegie
66. “Put a ‘stop-loss’ order on your worries. Decide just how much anxiety a thing may be worth- and refuse to give it any more.” – Dale Carnegie
67. “If half a century of living has taught me anything at all, it has taught me that nothing can bring you peace but yourself.” – Dale Carnegie
68. “By talking to yourself about the things you have to be grateful for you can fill your mind with thoughts that soar and sing.” – Dale Carnegie
69. “Try to fix firmly in your mind what you would like to do; and then, without veering off direction, you will move straight to the goal.” – Dale Carnegie
70. “You can get ahead in the world. But you will have to work, you will have to want tremendously to accomplish something, and then be willing to pay the price. Are you willing?” – Dale Carnegie
71. “Let us praise even the slightest improvement. That inspires the other person to keep on improving.” – Dale Carnegie
72. “Take charge of your attitude. Don’t let someone else choose it for you.” – Dale Carnegie
73. “Your thoughts make you what you are; by changing our thoughts we can change our lives.” – Dale Carnegie
74. “Patience and perseverance will accomplish more in this world than a brilliant dash. Remember that when something goes wrong.” – Dale Carnegie
75. “Stop worrying and start living.” – Dale Carnegie
76. “The best things in life are yours, if you can appreciate yourself.” – Dale Carnegie
77. “We move toward what we picture in our minds.” – Dale Carnegie
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