Three sentence summary

A book of pragmatic advice about how to make people like you. Much of the advice can be summarized: cultivate a genuine interest and affection for other people, and remember people are more interested in themselves than in you.

To win other people to your way of thinking remember the old saw, “a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall”; it’s not enough to be right, you have to be kind, too.

Random thoughts

There are some inadvertent arguments against the existence of free will in some degree:

Take Al Capone, for example. Suppose you had inherited the same body and temperament and mind that Al Capone had. Suppose you had had his environment and experiences. You would then be precisely what he was—and where he was.

– Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People

And

When Mrs. Lincoln and other spoke harshly of the southern people, Lincoln replied: “Don’t criticize them; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances.”

– Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People

There’s some overlap here with the ideas in the book The Scout Mindset, particularly the section where he talks about winning others to your way of thinking:

Nine times out of ten, an argument ends with each of the contestants more firmly convinced than ever that he is absolutely right.

– Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People

And

A man convinced against his will Is of the same opinion still.

– Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People

Both books cite The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin referencing the part in the 2nd section where he mentions that he no longer tells people they’re wrong directly.

Details

Links

• Worldcat
• Open Library
• Bookshop
• Goodreads