It was once said...

    Using a quotation is a very powerful technique that can help you draw listeners' attention or leave them with a lasting impression. Here are some beautiful examples, I hope they'll inspire you!




1. It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. – Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809– 1892)


2. Never explain – your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway. – Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915)


3. Well done is better than well said. – Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)


4. I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli! – George H W Bush (1924–)


5. To get back my youth I would do anything in the world except take exercise, get up early or be respectable. – Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)


6. Words are, of course, the most powerful drug known to mankind. – Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936)


7. We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. – Martin Luther King, Jr (1929–1968)


8. My one regret in life is that I’m not someone else. – Woody Allen (1935–)


9. I never think of the future, It comes soon enough. – Albert Einstein (1879–1955)


10. I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. – Confucius (551–479 BC)


11. All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860)


12. He who has a “why” to live, can bear with almost any “how”. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) 


13. Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right. Henry Ford (1863–1947)


 14. Sometimes it is not enough that we do our best; we must do what is required. Sir Winston Churchill (1874–1965)


 15. In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it’s the exact opposite. Paul Dirac (1902–1984)


16. I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves. Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) 


17. Be nice to people on your way up, because you meet them on your way down. Jimmy Durante (1893–1980)  

18. The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready. Henry David Thoreau  (1817–1862)

For my speech in particular "My one regret in life is that I’m not someone else" would be a very good choice. I think most people can relate to it and it is closely connected with my topic.

For the body of my speech I would use "The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready". I think it is a perfect argument to prove that being by yourself has got a lot of advantages.

Which quotations do you like most?