Who said: "Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success"

BookBrowse's Favorite Quotes

"Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success" – Dale Carnegie

Dale CarnegieDale Breckenridge Carnegie (1888–1955), born Carnagey, was an American writer and lecturer best remembered for his extremely popular courses on self-improvement, salesmanship, public speaking and interpersonal skills.

Born in Maryville, Missouri, the son of a poor farmer, Carnegie managed to keep up with his education despite getting up at 4 a.m. to milk the cows. After college he sold correspondence courses to ranchers, then moved to selling food products. After saving $500 he quit his job in 1911 in the hope of becoming a traveling lecturer, but instead he ended up at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Finding little success as an actor he got the idea of teaching public speaking and persuaded the manager of the YMCA where he was staying in in New York to let him instruct a class in return for 80% of the net proceeds. The Dale Carnegie Course evolved from this modest start.

One of his most canny marketing moves was to change the spelling of his last name from Carnagey to Carnegie - the same spelling used by the well known, but unrelated, industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. In 1916, four years after his first lecture, Dale Carnegie was sufficiently well known that he was able to rent Carnegie Hall in New York, and conduct a lecture to a packed house.

Although not the only book he wrote, he is best remembered as the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936). By the time of his death of Hodgkin's disease in 1955, the book had sold more than five million copies in 31 languages, and 450,000 had graduated from the Dale Carnegie Institute.

More Quotes

This quote & biography originally ran in an issue of BookBrowse's membership magazine. Full Membership Features & Benefits.

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Cover Girl
    by Amy Rossi
    Find them early enough, and they will always be her girls.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    This Here Is Love
    by Princess Joy L. Perry

    Three people—two enslaved, one indentured—struggle to overcome the limits and labels of their painful shared pasts.

  • Book Jacket

    A Club of One's Own
    by BookBrowse

    Dreaming of starting or reviving a book club? A Club of One’s Own is the essential guide to doing it right.

  • Book Jacket

    The Magician of Tiger Castle
    by Louis Sachar

    The author of Holes returns with a magical adult debut about forbidden love and a kingdom on the brink of collapse.

  • Book Jacket

    Too Old for This
    by Samantha Downing

    A retired killer's secret is at risk when a visitor arrives—her only option? Another murder.

Win This Book
Win All the Men I've Loved Again

All the Men I've Loved Again by Christine Pride

Christine Pride's solo debut explores a woman's love triangle in her 20s that unexpectedly resurfaces in her 40s.

Enter

Book
Trivia

  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

I N R S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.