“Success in dealing with people depends on a sympathetic grasp of the other persons’ viewpoint.”
~Dale Carnegie
Human Relations Principle #17: Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
(“A formula that will work wonders for you.”)
(This is the seventeenth in a series of articles where I will encapsulate each of Dale Carnegie’s timeless, life-changing principles for dealing with people. (Adapted from How to Win Friends and Influence People.))*
Seeing things through another person’s eyes may ease tensions when personal problems become overwhelming.
There is a reason why the other person thinks and acts as he or she does. Ferret out that reason—and you have the key to their actions, perhaps to their personality. Try honestly to put yourself in his or her place.
Remember that other people may be totally wrong. But they don’t think so. Don’t condemn them. Any fool can do that. Try to understand them. Only wise, tolerant, exceptional people can try to do that.
Say to yourself, “How would I feel, how would I react if I were in his or her shoes?” You will save yourself time and irritation, for by becoming interested in the cause, we are less likely to dislike the effect. And, in addition, you will sharply increase your skill in human relationships. Read more

“In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.”
“If you want enemies, excel your friends;
“He who treads softly goes far.”
Abe Lincoln said, “If a man’s heart is rankling with discord and ill feeling toward you, you can’t win him to your way of thinking with all the logic in Christendom. Scolding parents and domineering bosses and husbands and nagging wives ought to realize that people don’t want to change their minds. They can’t be forced or driven to agree with you or me. But they may possibly be led to, if we are gentle and friendly, ever so gentle and ever so friendly.”
“By fighting you never get enough, but by yielding you get more than you expected.”
“You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it within himself.”
“If you argue and rankle and contradict, you may achieve a victory sometimes;
“Every man I meet is my superior in some way.
Make yourself agreeable to earn the interest of others.