“No, but I really know you love me because whenever I want to talk to you about something, you stop whatever you are doing and listen to me.”

If we are so contemptibly selfish that we can’t radiate a little happiness and pass on a bit of honest appreciation without trying to get something out of the other person in return—if our souls are no bigger than sour crab apples, we shall meet with the failure we so richly deserve.

that was true of Emerson, isn’t it likely to be a thousand times more true of you and me? Let us cease thinking of our accomplishments, our wants. Let us try to figure out the other person’s good points.

Try leaving a friendly trail of little sparks of gratitude on your daily trips. You will be surprised how they will set small flames of friendship that will be rose beacons on your next visit.

That, he said, frankly, was one of the outstanding reasons for the phenomenal success of Andrew Carnegie. He praised his associates publicly as well as privately. Carnegie wanted to praise his assistants even on his tombstone. His epitaph, which he wrote himself, reads: “Here lies one who knew how to get around him men who were cleverer than himsel

Franklin D. Roosevelt knew that one of the simplest, most obvious, and most important ways of gaining goodwill was by remembering names and making people feel important—yet how many of us do it?

He pointed to the young man at the soda fountain and said that after I had left, the boy had come over and said that I was one of the few salespeople that called on the store that even bothered to say hello to him and to the others in the store. He told the owner that if any salesperson deserved his business, it was I. The owner agreed and remained

When we are not engaged in thinking about some definite problem, we usually spend about 95 percent of our time thinking about ourselves. Now, if we stop thinking about ourselves for a while and begin to think of the other person’s good points, we wouldn’t have to resort to flattery so cheap and false that it can be spotted almost before it is out o

technique? Simple. If he didn’t hear the name distinctly, he said, “So sorry. I didn’t get the name clearly.” Then, if it was an unusual name, he would say, “How is it spelled?” During the conversation, he took the trouble to repeat the name several times, and tried to associate it in his mind with the person’s features, expression, and general app