Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t. – Bill Nye (the Science Guy) –

Quotes are just words, right? Well, I once had a mentor who used to say that “a choice of words is a choice of worlds.” From all the organizations Will and I have dropped into, this idea seems to ring true of their culture. It’s why we have such conviction around “creating conversations that matter.” Questions shape our conversations. Conversations shape our culture. And the circular cycle continues.

The intention of sharing this list of 55 powerful quotes is to help ignite your teams to connect and engage. There are lots of ways to creatively use powerful quotes to create conversations that matter. Want a quick one? Show your team this list and ask them to choose one, pair up with someone they know least in the room, and share what about that quote really resonates with them. It’s amazing the vulnerability that shows up. It’s like the quotes offer a form of “shielded discussion.”

If you want a dynamic team icebreaker or group activity to spark engagement at your next meeting, many of these 55 quotes also happen to be in our We! Engage Cards. This hexagon-shaped deck also comes with 10+ simple-to-lead exercises to spice up meetings.

55 Quotes to Spark Engagement

1. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. – Maya Angelou –
2. Done is better than perfect. – Sheryl Sandberg –
3. If you change the way you look at things; the things you look at change. – Dr. Wayne Dyer –
4. Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change. – Brené Brown –
5. You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. – Plato –
6. All life is an experiment. – Ralph Waldo Emerson –
7. Look how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” – Anne Frank –
8. The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed. – Carl Jung –
9. If you can let go of passion, and follow your curiosity, your curiosity might just lead you to your passion. – Elizabeth Gilbert –
10. Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak. – Epictetus –
11. Everyone and everything around you is your teacher. – Ken Keyes Jr. –
12. You are your best thing. – Toni Morrison –
13. To be playful and serious at the same time defines the ideal mental condition. – John Dewey –
14. There is no world, there are only six billion understandings of it. – Drew Dudley –
15. We don’t laugh because we’re happy – we’re happy because we laugh. – William James –
16. Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It’s not. – Dr. Seuss –
17. Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. – George Bernard Shaw –
18. Little by little, one travels far. – J. R. R. Tolkien –
19. Everything you can imagine is real. – Pablo Picasso –
20. To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides. – David Viscott –
21. Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive. – Elbert Hubbard –
22. With every deed you are sowing a seed, though the harvest you may not see. – Ella Wilcox –
23. When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. – Jimi Hendrix –
24. It’s weird not to be weird. – John Lennon –
25. Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill –
26. A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow –
27. Silence is one of the great arts of conversation. – Marcus Tullius Cicero –
28. Dreams and reality are opposites. Action synthesizes them. – Assata Shakur –
29. Always forgive your enemies – nothing forgives them so much. – Oscar Wilde –
30. Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand. – Mother Teresa –
31. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth. – Mahatma Gandhi –
32. Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. – Helen Keller –
33. The more you do , the more you fail. The more you fail, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you get. The operative word here is learn. – Jim Zabloski –
34. A person is a person because of other people. – Zulu proverb –
35. Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. – Erich Fromm –
36. The value in an idea lies in using it. – Thomas Edison –
37. The last human freedom is to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances. – Viktor Frankl –
38. A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions. – Oliver Wendall Holmes –
39. Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters. – Margaret Wheatley –
40. The cure to boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. – Dorothy Parker –
41. Nothing shapes our lives so much as the questions we ask, refuse to ask, or never dream of asking. – Thomas Berger –
42. I do want to create art beyond rage. Rage is a place to begin, but not end. – Sandra Cisneros –
43. We’re all under the same sky and walk the same earth; we’re alive together during the same moment. – Maxine Hong Kingston –
44. Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher. – Oprah Winfrey –
45. The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them. – Ida B. Wells –
46. I don’t try to sound like anyone but me anymore. If something is out of my element, I try to avoid it. – Norah Jones –
47. You were once wild here. Don’t let them tame you. – Isadora Duncan –
48. Find something you really love doing and mix it with something you really care about. – Kathleen Hanna –
49. Use your faults, use your defects; then you’re going to be a star. – Édith Piaf –
50. I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act. – Janet Mock –
51. If you’re creating anything at all, it’s really dangerous to care about what people think. – Kristen Wiig –
52. The moments that make life worth living are when things are at their worst and you find a way to laugh. – Amy Schumer –
53. There are opportunities even in the most difficult moments. – Wangari Maathai –
54. Normal is nothing more than a cycle on a washing machine. – Whoopi Goldberg –
55. Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t. – Bill Nye (the Science Guy) –

We’ve been quite intentional about pulling these insights, wisdoms, perspectives and quips from a diverse range of people. Men. Women. Black. White. Rich. Poor. Famous. Anonymous. Gay. Straight. And everything in between. If you choose to believe in the power of “we,” you must also listen with a deep curiosity from all who are different from you. Different perspectives are the spice that makes buzz words like “innovation” or “culture” so darn delicious when you get the right mix.

My absolute favorite part about quotes is that people just make them up. Before they were spoken or written, they didn’t exist. Funny quotes. Serious quotes. Inspiring quotes. We have the power to make them up.

A great team exercise to close a long meeting or company retreat is by inviting everybody to come up with their own quote to put a cap on your time together.  You can find many more group exercises with our We! Engage Cards. The deck has thought-provoking quotes and photos to spark connection, trust, and engagement.

Happy connecting and engaging! Get in touch if we can be helpful along the way.