The chronic kicker, even the most violent critic, will frequently soften and be subdued in the presence of a patient, sympathetic listenerโ a listener who will be silent while the irate fault-finder dilates like a king cobra and spews the poison out of his system.
Dale CarnegieSuppose you had inherited the same body and temperament and mind that Al Capone had. Suppose you had had his environment and experiences. You would then be precisely what he was. . . . For it is those things - and only those things - that made him what he was. . . . You deserve very little credit for being what you are - and remember, the people who come to you irritated, bigoted, unreasoning, deserve very little discredit for being what they are.
Dale CarnegieA good deed, "said the prophet Mohammed, "is one that brings a smile of joy to the face of another." Why will doing a good deed every day produce such astounding efforts on the doer? Because trying to please others will cause us to stop thinking of ourselves: the very thing that produces worry and fear and melancholia.
Dale Carnegie