I love great quotes. Great quotes are opportunity. I think there is a lot that can be learned from a great quote and a great quote can come from anywhere.
Quotes are mostly made up of wisdom. Thoughtful sayings that actually mean something or have a purpose. Proverbs is probably my favorite book in the Bible because of all the wisdom in the quotes.
A quote is, in a sense, history. If you were the first person to say something, you own that something for the rest of your life.
If what you said is popularized, then others carry what you said with them for the rest of theirs. (that's a great quote I just typed)
The Internet is full of great quotes. There are some websites that actually make a lot of money, I'm guessing in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, just culling great quotes and placing them on some picture background.
The Myspace economy was amazing for that and it made some people, who were early to see the power of network effects and "going viral" (a term barely coined back then) very wealthy. Multi-millionaire wealthy.
Then they ruined the Myspace economy and then everyone lost a bunch of money.
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These quotes aren't from famous people - mostly me, a couple of friends, and acquaintances (yes, I do quote myself a lot. That's because I like what I have to say. <--I just typed that, but that will be the first quote).
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"I do quote myself a lot. That's because I like what I have to say." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"The meaning of helpless is not when we can no longer help ourselves, It's when we have no ability to help others. That is the opposite of helpful. It is the worst feeling, possibly, one can have." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"Even if it's time to die, look like you're ready to arrive." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"Never let the practical get in the way of the possible." - James Altucher
"People who often make bad choices have no problem telling you how to make good choices." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"When you sacrifice a fly for someone else so they can then score, you still get an RBI ... " - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"I could care less, but my crotch wants to buy you a beer." - Jim Carrey circa 1991
"... Is like putting a Band-Aid on a severed limb — so pathetic it's not even cosmetic." - Glenn Reynolds
"The problem I've always had is, I look like Pinky but think like The Brain." Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"The short cut in poker: don’t bluff. If you have a good hand, play it. Count on the fact that someone else will bluff and you will make a lot of money." - James Altucher
"It is easier to find clarity in the calm of the evening than in the chaos of the day." - Linda Demick
"What the world needs are some insults that everyone knows are insults but that don't 'offend' any one group of sassy pants individuals looking to be victims over mere words spoken. No matter the group ... No matter the people ..." Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"That's the way marketing works--you don't persuade people with your story, you just give people who already agree with you the tools they need to persuade their friends." - Seth Godin
"“Gratitude” is another word for “Abundance” because the things you are most grateful for, become abundant in your life." - James Altucher
"Time and chance come to us all - sometimes the difference is in the effort." -- Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"Always start with what they need, not what you want." -- Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"People are often surprised to learn that I am not so concerned about having attention that I constantly strive to be the center of it." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"Next to "your parents are human too, take it easy on them" the hardest thing in the world to learn is "God made you who you are" ..." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"I'm going to tell you something, okay? And I want you to pay attention because if you understand what I'm saying, you're going to do really well ... a lot better than others. Ready? Babies don't buy shampoo." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"That's like asking why bunnies have to become rabbits." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"Worse than feeling like you're not being paid what you're worth is the belief that all you're really doing is wasting your time." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"People who quote other people, yet never quote themselves, aren't worth quoting." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"I'm thankful for every day worth remembering - even if I don't." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"When other people say they "know people" who they are talking about is me. I'm the 'people' they know." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"Most people don't know, honestly, that celebrity IS a product ... used to tell clients that in Nashville they think they're going to be a singer or artist or whatever ...nope. they, if they get to where they want to go, are nothing more than a product for consumption... as long as someone wants their product, they will be consumed." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"The Village Idiots are always fighting the F*cking Dumb@ss's and there's not enough Smart People like us to really have a shot." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"Just so you know .... a lot of people don't know how to spell grateful." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"The entire world order is based on one simple principle: people telling other people what they can and cannot do. That's not the amazing part. The amazing part is that effectively 90% of the decisions made by others for others, have no clear reason for being. If what I'm saying is true (and it is) than it's reasonable to assume that all of us could read those 3 sentences above and follow with a fourth to easily prove the point: 'Take for example ... '" - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"In Order To Be Seen You Must First Be Noticed." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"The problem isn't where you believe it is - it's exactly where you think it's not." - Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
"People who act in unconscionable ways are often encouraged to do so by their contemporaries." -- Paul King (Open Doors and Opportunity Blog)
Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant, than pretend to be somebody and have no food - Proverbs 12:9
"You know if you take everything I've accomplished in my entire life and condensed it down to one day, it looks decent." -- George Costanza (Seinfeld) (the only famous person on this list but it's a great line)
"...money finds a home only in places where it’s appreciated. I didn’t appreciate the money. So it left me." - James Altucher
"You can find pornography from any culture at any point in history. Even the cavemen were scratching boobies into cave walls." - Christopher Jon
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You can quote yourself and your friends too - if what you or they say isn't pocket lint and not unworthy to use.
It's actually pretty fun to think of yourself as someone smart enough to quote. Confidence in what you say goes a long way to opening doors and finding opportunity.
Once you get in the quote mindset it's kind of hard to turn off. You don't look for quotes, your mind just comes up with them.
It's an intellectual challenge and it's a good one. A fun one. It's a lot like finding new ideas - because really, a quote is just an idea.
Is that idea worthy of being quoted? You'll have to decide for yourself.
How do you know if it's original? Google of course. Just put the quote in quotes ( " " ) and search. Look through everything you can find and if you don't find it (and similar doesn't count), it's an original. Likely to be. Google will tell you.
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