10 BEST Dale Carnegie Books & Quotes of All Time (February 2023)

by Arthur Worsley
M.A. Psychology, Oxford. McKinsey Alum. Founder & Editor at TAoL.

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Contents

1. Who Was Dale Carnegie?

2. The Best Dale Carnegie Books of All Time

3. More Books Like Dale Carnegie's Books

4. Best Dale Carnegie Quotes

5. Wish There Was a Faster/Easier Way?

Who Was Dale Carnegie?

Dale Carnegie (November 24, 1888 – November 1, 1955) was an American writer and lecturer and a developer of courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. Born into poverty on a farm in Missouri, he was the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), one of the best-selling books of all time.

Learn more about Dale Carnegie

The Best Dale Carnegie Books of All Time

Why these best Dale Carnegie books and not others? To stay objective, I rank all my book recommendations by a combination of what’s most loved (Goodreads rating), what’s most popular (Goodreads review count) and what’s proven timlessly relevant (first publication date).

This isn’t a whimsical list. It’s a data-driven, crowdsourced collection of the best Dale Carnegie books ever published as decided by book lovers like you.

And if you think something's missing? I LOVE book recommendations so if there are any other books by Dale Carnegie that you think deserve mentioning, email me and I’ll be sure to include them in the next round of updates.

Until then, here are the best Dale Carnegie books of all time...

Best Dale Carnegie Books: How to Win Friends and Influence People

1. How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie (FREE Summary)

How to Win Friends and Influence People is THE classic guide to greatly improving effectiveness and efficiency by mastering the ability to work with and through the people around you - by self-improvement guru, Dale Carnegie.

Published 1936 // 288 pages // Rated 4.2 over 716,700 reviews on Goodreads

Best Dale Carnegie Books: How to Develop Self-Confidence And Influence People by Public Speaking

2. How to Develop Self-Confidence And Influence People by Public Speaking - Dale Carnegie

Published 1905 // 240 pages // Rated 4.1 over 4,000 reviews on Goodreads

Best Dale Carnegie Books: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

3. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living - Dale Carnegie (FREE Summary)

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living is a practical, common-sense bible filled with stories, case studies and simple step-by-step guides to conquering worry, anxiety and depression - by self development guru, Dale Carnegie.

Published 1944 // 358 pages // Rated 4.1 over 87,800 reviews on Goodreads

Best Dale Carnegie Books: Lincoln the Unknown

4. Lincoln the Unknown - Dale Carnegie

Published 1932 // 256 pages // Rated 4.2 over 1,800 reviews on Goodreads

Best Dale Carnegie Books: The Art of Public Speaking

5. The Art of Public Speaking - Dale Carnegie

Published 1915 // 528 pages // Rated 3.9 over 4,000 reviews on Goodreads

Best Dale Carnegie Books: How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age

6. How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age - Dale Carnegie

Published 1932 // 272 pages // Rated 3.9 over 9,800 reviews on Goodreads

Best Dale Carnegie Books: The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking

7. The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking - Dale Carnegie

Published 1962 // 224 pages // Rated 4.0 over 8,600 reviews on Goodreads

Best Dale Carnegie Books: The Leader In You

8. The Leader In You - Dale Carnegie

How to Win Friends, Influence People and Succeed in a Changing World

Published 1993 // 256 pages // Rated 4.1 over 4,800 reviews on Goodreads

Best Dale Carnegie Books: How To Enjoy Your Life And Your Job

9. How To Enjoy Your Life And Your Job - Dale Carnegie

Published 1955 // 224 pages // Rated 4.0 over 2,900 reviews on Goodreads

Best Dale Carnegie Books: Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business

10. Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business - Dale Carnegie

Published 1935 // 340 pages // Rated 3.9 over 200 reviews on Goodreads

See all Dale Carnegie's books on Amazon
Visit Dale Carnegie's Goodreads profile

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Best Dale Carnegie Quotes

Here are some of the best Dale Carnegie of all time...

"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."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

"Our thoughts make us what we are."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

"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."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

"No matter what happens, always be yourself... Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

"Two men looked out from prison bars, One saw the mud, the other saw stars."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

"Let's not allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. Remember "Life is too short to be little"."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

"Today is our most precious possession. It is our only sure possession."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

"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, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

"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."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

"A good deed is one that brings a smile of joy to the face of another. Why will doing a good deed every day produce such astounding efforts on the doer? Because trying to please others will cause us to stop thinking of ourselves: the very thing that produces worry and fear and melancholia."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

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

- Dale Carnegie

"The person who has technical knowledge plus the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership and to arouse enthusiasm among people – that person is headed for higher earning power."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"Health is the prime interest of adults… their second interest is people; how to understand and get along with people; how to make people like you; and how to win others to your way of thinking."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"For years I kept an engagement book showing all the appointments I had during the day. My family never made any plans for me on Saturday night, for the family knew that I devoted a part of each Saturday evening to the illuminating process of self-examination and review and appraisal. After dinner, I went off by myself, opened my engagement book, and thought over all the interviews, discussions and meetings that had taken place during the week. I asked myself: What mistakes did I make that time? What did I do that was right – and in what way could I have improved my performance? What lessons can I learn from that experience? … This system of self-analysis, self-education, continued year after year, did more for me than any other one thing I have ever attempted."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"Criticism is futile because it puts a person on the defensive and usually makes him strive to justify himself. Criticism is dangerous, because it wounds a person’s precious pride, hurts his sense of importance, and arouses resentment."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"Criticisms are like homing pigeons. They always return home."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"There is only one way under high heaven to get anybody to do anything…. and that is by making the other person want to do it. Remember, there is no other way."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"If you tell me how you get your feeling of importance, I’ll tell you what you are. That determines your character."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"The difference between appreciation and flattery? That is simple. One is sincere and the other insincere. One comes from the heart out; the other from the teeth out. One is unselfish; the other selfish. One is universally admired; the other universally condemned."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming genuinely interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"The expression one wears on one’s face is far more important than the clothes one wears on one’s back… That is why dogs make such a hit. They are so glad to see us that they almost jump out of their skins. So naturally, we are glad to see them."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"You must have a good time meeting people if you expect them to have a good time meeting you."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"If you aspire to be a good conversationalist, be an attentive listener. To be interesting, be interested. Ask questions that other persons will enjoy answering. Encourage them to talk about themselves and their accomplishments. Remember that the people you are talking to are a hundred times more interested in themselves and their wants and problems than they are in you and your problems. A person’s toothache means more to that person than a famine in China which kills a million people."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"Whenever Roosevelt expected a visitor, he sat up late the night before reading up on the subject in which he knew his guest was particularly interested. For … the royal road to a person’s heart is to talk about the things he or she treasures most."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"The unvarnished truth is that almost all the people you meet feel themselves superior to you in some way, and the sure way to their hearts is to let them realize in some subtle way that you realize their importance, and recognize it sincerely."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"There is only one way under high heaven to get the best of an argument – and that is to avoid it… You can’t win an argument. You can’t because if you lose it, you lost it; and if you win it, you lose it."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"You will never get into trouble by admitting that you may be wrong. That will stop all argument and inspire your opponent to be just as fair and open and broad-minded as you are. It will make him want to admit that he, too, may be wrong."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"When we are wrong, we may admit it to ourselves. And if we are handled gently and tactfully, we may admit it to others and even take pride in our frankness and broad-mindedness. But not if someone is trying to ram an unpalatable fact down our oesophagus."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"If you are satisfied with the results you are now getting, why change? If you are not satisfied, why not experiment?"

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"That is what every successful person loves: the game. The chance for self-expression. The chance to prove his or her worth, to excel, to win."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"It isn’t nearly so difficult to listen to a recital of your faults if the person criticising begins by humbly admitting that he, too, is far from impeccable."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"If you want to improve a person in a certain respect, act as though that particular trait were already one of his or her outstanding characteristics."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

"The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear to do and get a record of successful experiences behind you."

- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People Summary

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