Dale Carnegie's Scrapbook

Dale Carnegie was a man who loved the tang of a salty phrase. In all his reading, the hooks of his attention were barbed to catch the pungent paragraph, the apt expression, the sweeping sentence that thereafter remained fixed in his memory.... Although his natural speech and accent was straightforwardly Middle Western, clear unembellished and free of affectation, it was heightened and enriched by his enjoyment and appreciation of what other men had written. In his writing, he used quotations sparingly, but effectively, to emphasize or lend authority to a point. His collection of quotations and excerpts were roughly classified according to subject matter, and when sorted out they group themselves naturally into these rough classifications. Taken together, these quotations form a philosophy that is a clear statement of the truths Dale Carnegie believed in, wrote about and taught. The importance and joy of work--overcoming fear and defeat by courage and persistence--love and gentleness and courtesy between human beings-a strong, sustaining faith in God: this was his creed.