《人性的弱点》是卡耐基书写的励志经典,荟萃了卡耐基思想理论的精华部分,被视为社交心理和沟通技巧的“圣经”。在书中他对人性进行了深入浅出的论述,并在此基础上介绍了各种实用的人际交往的方法,帮助人们解决交往中的实际难题,走出交往困境。

Preface to Revised Edition How to Win Friends and Influence People was first published in 1937 in an edition of only five thousand copies. Neither Dale Carnegie nor the publishers, Simon and Schuster, anticipated more than this modest sale. To their amazement, the book became an overnight sensation, and edition after edition rolled off the presses to keep up with the increasing public demand. How to Win Friends and Influence People took its place in publishing history as one of the all-time international best-sellers. It touched a nerve and filled a human need that was more than a faddish phenomenon of post-depression days, as evidenced by its continued and uninterrupted sales into the eighties, almost half a century later.
Dale Carnegie used to say that it was easier to make a million dollars than to put a phrase into the English language. How to Win Friends and Influence People became such a phrase, quoted, paraphrased, parodied, used in innumerable contexts from political cartoons to novels. The book itself was translated into almost every known written language. Each generation has discovered it anew and has found it relevant.
Which brings us to the logical question: Why revise a book that has proven and continues to prove its vigorous and universal appeal? Why tamper with success?
To answer that, we must realize that Dale Carnegie himself was a tireless reviser of his own work during his lifetime. How to Win Friends and Influence People was written to be used as a textbook for his courses in Effective Speaking and Human Relations and is still used in those courses today. Until his death in 1955 he constantly improved and revised the course itself to make it applicable to the evolving needs of an evergrowing public. No one was more sensitive to the changing currents of present-day life than Dale Carnegie. He constantly improved and refined his methods of teaching; he updated his book on Effective Speaking several times. Had he lived longer, he himself would have revised How to Win Friends and Influence People to better reflect the changes that have taken place in the world since the thirties.
Many of the names of prominent people in the book, well known at the time of first publication, are no longer recognized by many of today’s readers. Certain examples and phrases seem as quaint and dated in our social climate as those in a Victorian novel. The important message and overall impact of the book is weakened to that extent.
Our purpose, therefore, in this revision is to clarify and strengthen the book for a modern reader without tampering with the content. We have not “changed” How to Win Friends and Influence People except to make a few excisions and add a few more contemporary examples. The brash, breezy Carnegie style is intact—even the thirties slang is still there. Dale Carnegie wrote as he spoke, in an intensively exuberant, colloquial, conversational manner.

Preface to Revised Edition How This Book Was Written—And Why Nine Suggestions on How to Get the Most Out of This Book PART ONE Fundamental Techniques in Handling People 1. “If You Want to Gather Honey, Don’t Kick Over the Beehive” 2. The Big Secret of Dealing with People 3. “He Who Can Do This Has the Whole World with Him. He Who Cannot Walks a Lonely Way” PART TWO Six Ways to Make People Like You 1. Do This and You’ll Be Welcome Anywhere 2. A Simple Way to Make a Good First Impression 3. If You Don’t Do This, You Are Headed for Trouble 4. An Easy Way to Become a Good Conversationalist 5. How to Interest People 6. How to Make People Like You Instantly PART THREE How to Win People to Your Way of Thinking 1. You Can’t Win an Argument 2. A Sure Way of Making Enemies—And How to Avoid It 3. If You’re Wrong, Admit It 4. A Drop of Honey 5. The Secret of Socrates 6. The Safety Valve in Handling Complaints 7. How to Get Cooperation 8. A Formula That Will Work Wonders for You 9. What Everybody Wants 10. An Appeal That Everybody Likes 11. The Movies Do It. TV Does It. Why Don’t You Do It? 12. When Nothing Else Works, Try This PART FOUR Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment 1. If You Must Find Fault, This Is the Way to Begin 2. How to Criticize—And Not Be Hated for It 3. Talk About Your Own Mistakes First 4. No One Likes to Take Orders 5. Let the Other Person Save Face 6. How to Spur People On to Success 7. Give a Dog a Good Name 8. Make the Fault Seem Easy to Correct 9. Making People Glad to Do What You Want