Dale Carnegie

The essence of all Art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.

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.

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.

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.

If you’re proactive, you don’t have to wait for circumstances or other people to create perspective expanding experiences. You can consciously create your own.

Creativity and control can go hand in hand.

80 Percent of the constraints, the factors that are holding you back from achieving your goals, are internal.

Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, and some ask what happened.

Opportunities don’t happen, you create them.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.

Success is not to be measured by the position someone has reached in life, but the obstacles he has overcome while trying to succeed.

Just the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

Encouragement is the fuel on which hope runs.

And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here.

The way to succeed is to double your error rate.

When you encourage others, you in the process are encouraged because you’re making a commitment and difference in that person’s life. Encouragement really does make a difference.

Talent is formed in solitude, character in the bustle of the world.

Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.