sources for quotations in "How To Win Friends and Influence People"

June 29, 2022 8:38 AM

Dale Carnegie in How To Win Friends and Influence People liberally quotes (sometimes rephrasing) lots of other people. Often -- at least in the cheap paperback edition I have -- there's no citation. Is there a bibliography somewhere that attempts to track down the provenance of these quotations and anecdotes? Sometimes I'd like to cite a story or aphorism from the book, but I'd like to know if I need to add a "may be made up by Dale Carnegie" disclaimer, and when possible I'd prefer to be able to cite the original source.
posted by brainwane to Writing & Language (3 answers total)

I feel like the whole book and every claim within it deserves a "may be made up by Dale Carnegie" disclaimer. I doubt any alleged quotations could be treated more seriously than the rest of the text. I don't believe that the author was aiming for academic standards of citation.

If you have specific examples in mind - there are a bunch of "who really said..." resources online. Maybe someone here could help to track some of them down.
posted by rd45 at 9:56 AM on June 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

If it isn't verified in someplace like Wikiquote, Quote Investigator, or Bartlett's, I'd just say something like "cited by Carnegie, but probably apocryphal."
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 10:09 AM on June 29, 2022

I’m with rd45 to the extent that I think citing Carnegie even with a disclaimers is something that would get you some serious side-eye in many of the kinds of circles wherein you might bother to actually cite something.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:32 PM on June 29, 2022