10 Great Quotes You Are Unlikely to Find (Except in a Book)

Are you tired of using the same quotes over and over again, or seeing the same quotes being used everywhere? The perfect quotes that are well placed can make the difference between a ho-hum piece of communication and one that is music to the ears of your audience. But, if we all using the same quotes, our writing quickly becomes stale.

What can you do about using the same old quotes all the time? Actually a lot. Whenever I saw a great quote that I liked, I would enter it into my "Quotes That I Like" file for future use. An avid reader and constant interviewer, one day it dawned on me that I was capable of creating quotations to use in my writing since I was already taking note of great ideas that I came across. In no time, I had a substantial number of fresh quotes that I could use anytime without fear of others using those quotes, unless they read the same books and interviewed the same people that I did.

Here is a tip that I would like to share with you so that you too may create a body of quotes that you can draw on whenever the need arises. Whenever you are reading a book, make sure that you have a pen and highlighter handy. If a phrase resonates with you, it will likely resonate with others so highlight it, then record it on the inside cover of the book and make sure you include the page number where you found it. Immediately after you finish reading the book, transfer the information into your computer.

You will be surprised at how quickly you will have amassed a pool of quotes that will make your communications sparkle. To add, to your pool of quotations, here are 10 phrases that struck a chord with me while I was reading. They will make excellent quotes and freshen up any piece of communication today!

"Without your colleagues you are nothing and trying to truly understand them as individuals is the most respectful thing you can do as a leader. And mutual respect provides the foundation for motivation in almost all cases." Simon Grant

"A woman can make a difference even if she finds herself caged in her poor community. She has herself. No one can take that from her - only herself." Anthea Rossouw

"You cannot carry the requirements of a prior position into a new one without first assessing the new situation and its needs. You can bring some things with you if they fit the new framework; the rest you must toss aside." John Gardner

"Creative imagination is not something reserved for the poets, the philosophers, the inventors. It enters into our every act. Imagination sets the goal picture that our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of will, as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination." Maxwell Maltz, The New Psycho-Cybernetics

"I will laugh at the world. And with laughter all things will be reduced to their proper size. I will laugh at my failures and they will vanish in the clouds of new dreams; I will laugh at my successes and they will shrink to their true value." Og Mandino, The Greatest Secret in the World

"Remember, praise is power. Invest the praise you receive from your superior. Pass praise on down to your subordinates where it will encourage still greater performance. When you share praise, your subordinates know you sincerely appreciate their value." David J. Schwartz, The Magic of Thinking Big

"The only thing that is necessary for triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. It is our lack of intense, disciplined activity that has allowed evil to flourish and good men to flounder." Jim Rohn, Five Major Pieces of the Life Puzzle

"In the end, our lives will be judged not by the things that we began, but by the things that our effort and resolve brought to a successful conclusion." Jim Rohn, Five Major Pieces of the Life Puzzle

"If you are having a challenge on a business level, do not look at how to change others, or even how to change the situation. Look at a way to change yourself." Lydia Danner

"You can help others more by making the most of yourself than in any other way." Wallace D. Wattles, Science of Getting Rich

"You must get rid of the thought of competition. You are to create, not to compete for what is already created. You do not have to take anything away from anyone..." Wallace D. Wattles, Science of Getting Rich

If you strategically use the above 10 quotes, and those that you amassed, your communications will never be the same again. Others will compliment you on the way your communications shine.