“The secret to creativity is to say an old thing in a new way to or a new thing in an old way.” – Richard Harding Davis
I guess you can tell I love quotes . . .
Fresh quotes are a quick way to get our message’s foot in our readers’ and listeners’ mental door.
Why?
When we introduce something people haven’t heard before; they want to know more.
Here, as promised, are my 10 favorite quotes of the more than 2000 featured in my books POP! Tongue Fu!®, ConZentrate, Take the Bully by the Horns, What’s Holding you Back? and the upcoming SerenDestiny.
Hope you enjoy them and are able to use them to spice up your articles, blogs and presentations so people are motivated to pay attention to what you have to say.
1. “If there were a rehab for curiosity; I’d be in it.” – CBS news anchor Diane Sawyer
2. “I think we need a 12-step group for non-stop talkers. We’re going to call it On and On Anon.” – comedian Paula Poundstone
3. “When I die, I want to come back as . . . me.” – NBA team owner Mark Cuban
4. “I am in love with hope.’ – Tuesdays with Morrie Author Mitch Albom
5. “There’s no such thing as a wrong note as long as you’re singing.” – singer Pete Seeger
6. “The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.” – columnist Maureen Dowd
7. “There is moment in every child’s life where a door opens and lets the future in.” – author Graham Greene
8. “What a wonderful life I’ve had. I only wish I’d realized it sooner.” – singer Colette
9. “Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, ‘I am with you, kid. Let’s go.'” – author Maya Angelou
10. Before there were drawing boards, what did we go back to?” – comedian George Carlin
Oh what the heck – I’m on a roll and can’t stop.
Here are some more quotes that get people’s eyebrows up (a sure sign of intrigue).
I use them in my programs to keep people on the edge of their mental seats – and you can too.
11. “Guard your good mood.” – Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep
12. “To do what you love and feel that it matters; how could anything be more fun?” – Katherine Graham of the Washington Post
13. “People treat you the way you teach them to treat you.” – author Jack Canfield
14. “Teachers affect eternity. Who knows where their influence will end?’ – Henry Brooks Adams
15. “I have the world’s best job. I get paid to hang out in my imagination all day.” – author Stephen King
16. “Let us then, be up and doing.” – author Longfellow
17. “I have found if you love life, life will love you back.” – composer/painist Arthur Rubenstein
18. “Everyone thinks of changing the world, no one thinks of changing himself.” – author Leo Tolstoy
19. “If you wait to write, you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.” – self-publishing pioneer Dan Poynter
20. “It is always with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my intuition will toss up to me, like gifts from the sea. Intuition tells the thinking mind where to look next.” – Jonas Salk
21. “”The world was shocked to learn I wrote a bestseller at 66. No matter how long you live, you have stories to tell. What else is there to do but head off on the Conestoga wagon of the soul?” – Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt (Angela’s Ashes)
22. “Is there ever any particular spot where one can put one’s finger and say, “It all began that day, at such a time and such a place, with such an incident?’ – Agatha Christie
23. “The purpose of life is to . . . matter; to feel it has made some difference that we have lived at all.” – Leo Rosten
24. “When you can do a common thing in an uncommon way; you will command the attention of the world.” – inventor George Washington Carver
25. “Creativity is based on the belief that there’s no particular virtue in doing things the way they’ve always been done.” – Rudolph Flesch
What are your favorite quotes?
Please email quotations that have made you laugh, think, act or cry to us as Sam@SamHorn.com.
We’ll feature your favorite quotes in future blogs – with attribution – so other people can read ’em and reap.