How to Win Friends and Influence People

Dale Carnegie's book is a guide to dealing with people, built on one idea: you change how others treat you by changing how you treat them. Carnegie tells many short stories and offers a set of simple principles you can practise every day.

In the edition in print today, the book has four parts. The first covers the basics of handling people: do not criticize, give honest appreciation, and talk about what the other person wants. The second gives six ways to make people like you. The third gives twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking without arguing. The fourth shows how to correct people without giving offense or arousing resentment. Carnegie stresses throughout that the principles work only when they are sincere.

Note: the book first appeared in 1936 and has been revised since. Some of its examples show their time, so this summary keeps to the general ideas.