How to Win Friends and Influence People

Why read this book to find out how to win friends? Why not study the technique of the
greatest winner of friends the world has ever known? Who is he? You may meet him
tomorrow coming down the street. When you get within ten feet of him, he will begin
to wag his tail. If you stop and pat him, he will almost jump out of his skin to show you
how much he likes you. And you know that behind this show of affection on his part,
there are no ulterior motives: he doesn’t want to sell you any real estate, and he doesn’t
want to marry you.
Did you ever stop to think that a dog is the only animal that doesn’t have to work for a
living? A hen has to lay eggs, a cow has to give milk, and a canary has to sing. But a
dog makes his living by giving you nothing but love.
When I was five years old, my father bought a little yellow-haired pup for fifty cents.
He was the light and joy of my childhood. Every afternoon about four-thirty, he would
sit in the front yard with his beautiful eyes staring steadfastly at the path, and as soon
as he heard my voice or saw me swinging my dinner pail through the buck brush, he
was off like a shot, racing breathlessly up the hill to greet me with leaps of joy and
barks of sheer ecstasy.
Tippy was my constant companion for five years. Then one tragic night - I shall never
forget it - he was killed within ten feet of my head, killed by lightning. Tippy’s death
was the tragedy of my boyhood.
You never read a book on psychology, Tippy. You didn’t need to. You knew by some
divine instinct that 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. Let me repeat that. You can make more friends in two months by
becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other