Quotes from Winning With People

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Winning with People: Discover the People Principles that Work for You Every Time by John Maxwell.

"Good relationships are more than just the icing on the cake in life.  

They are the cake."

"Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important.  They do not mean to do harm.  They are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves."  -Poet T.S. Eliot

"I always say that the most important relationship you will ever have is with yourself.  You've got to be your own best friend first."  - Phil McGraw

"He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself." -George Herbert

"This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well."  -Statesman Sir Francis Bacon

"The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment." 

-Lady Dorothy Nevill

"A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Proverbs 15:1

"We gossip because we fail to love.  When we love people, we don't criticize them.  If we  love them, their failures hurt.  We don't advertise the sins of people we love any more than we advertise our own."  - John  Whit, "The Flight"

"People can be the wind beneath our wings or the anchor on our boat."

"Whenever you are too selfishly looking out for your own interest, you have only one person working for you-yourself.  When you help a dozen other people with their problems, you have a dozen people working with you."- William B. Given Jr.

"Sometimes when you give someone a piece of your mind, 

you lose your own peace of mind."

"I believe that if people made the effort to see things from other's points of view, 80% of our relational conflict would disappear."

"Understanding someone properly involves learning from him, and learning from someone properly involves changing oneself."  - Hans Kung

"The Platinum Rule:  Treat others the way they want to be treated."

"Treat a man as he appears to be and you make him worse.  But treat a man as if he already were what he potentially could be, and you make him what he should be."  -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Integrity is the basis of trust....  It is the one quality that cannot be acquired, but must be earned.  It is given by coworkers and followers, and without it, the leader can't function."  -Warren Bennis

"A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of  us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults." -Charles Kingsley

"Successful people make right decisions early and manage those decisions daily."

"All seems infected that the infected spy, as all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye." -Alexander Pope

"Studies have shown that, in the average home, for every positive statement, a child receives 10 negative statements.  The school environment is only slightly better; students hear seven negative statements from their teachers for every one positive statement.... It takes four positive statements to negate the effect of one negative statement." - Neil Anderson

Some powerful words for you to ponder.  Enjoy!

-Melissa