If you argue and rankle and contradict, you may achieve a victory sometimes; but it will be an empty victory because you will never get your opponent’s goodwill.

Letting the other person feel that the idea is his or hers not only works in business and politics, it works in family life as well.

Then, along with Lincoln and Roosevelt, you will have grasped the only solid foundation for interpersonal relationships; namely, that success in dealing with people depends on a sympathetic grasp of the other person’s viewpoint.’

‘Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.’

‘A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.’

‘In every work of genius we recognise our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.’

This tax inspector was demonstrating one of the most common of human frailties. He wanted a feeling of importance; and as long as Mr Parsons argued with him,

Martin Luther King was asked how, as a pacifist, he could be an admirer of Air Force General Daniel ‘Chappie’ James, then the nation’s highest-ranking black officer, Dr King replied, ‘I judge people by their own principles—not by my own.’

When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.