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.

Carnegie cautions against direct confrontation with people. In Part One, Chapter 1, he states that it is important to keep the other person’s feelings in mind. Most of the book is a series of tools to interact with others without making them feel inadequate. Instead of hearing corrective advice, most people will take personal offense to any comment or correction.

Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something.

Carnegie argues that all decisions are for some sort of personal want or gain. Even when giving money to charity, people are seeking a specific feeling, and they value that feeling more than the amount of money that they give. In Part One, Chapter 3, this concept is discussed to help the reader understand that it is easier to motivate someone when one knows what that person wants.

Did you ever stop to think that a dog is the only animal that doesn’t have to work for a living?

Carnegie points out that people enjoy dogs because they are pleasant to be around. They do not ask much of their owners and they show genuine joy and acceptance. In Part Two, Chapter 1, Carnegie advocates that the reader should try to show genuine interest in others without focusing on “what’s in it for me?”

Hearty in their approbation and lavish in their praise.

This borrowed quote appears several times throughout the book. Carnegie states that it originally comes from the steel magnate Charles Schwab (1862–1939). Carnegie uses it to remind the reader that it is best to praise people, even for small things.

The truth has to be made vivid, interesting, dramatic.

Carnegie describes the value in presentation in Part Three, Chapter 11. He asks that the reader dramatize information instead of describe it.

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