How to Win Friends and Influence People

"I read it when I was a teenager. The person who recommended it was my best friend from the third grade to this day. I think his dad had given it to him. And he gave it to me. It was really a life-changing book for me. Even though everything in it was common sense, and something I intuitively knew, it was the first time I’d seen anyone put it in a logical, applicable way. And I really started to apply those basic principles. It was a very, very important part of shaping me for the future. Primarily to remind me that every person is important. There is no such thing as a person who is more important than another. In terms of how it effects simple government, it means you don’t govern according to what’s best for what some would call ‘the elite’. You don’t govern in a way that’s really good for Wall Street but busts Main Street. You don’t govern in a way that’s good for Washington, but bad for the folks that are paying Washington’s bills. You realise that every person has equal worth and value. That basic principle has shaped pretty much everything I’ve done."