Motivational Speech Quotes That Hook Your Audience

Motivational speech quotes

Many speakers start with inspirational quotes and include quotes throughout their presentations. If you use them correctly, motivational speech quotes can be an effective technique. so long as you appropriately attribute them to the author.

One of the most important things to assure you have a powerful motivational speech is getting your audience engaged and listening from the beginning. An excellent way to hook the audience is through motivational speech quotes.

Choosing A Good Quote To Start A Speech

Many people love using a relevant quote to kick off a stellar speech. The quote you use early in your speech should grab attention and interest immediately. Stay away from passages that are lengthy and difficult to understand. Something brief and catchy is often precisely what you want.

Some speech professionals believe starting an address with your own works is preferable to using a motivational quote. While there is no harm in starting with a quote, make sure that most of what you have to say comes from your thoughts.

Motivational speech quotes - JFK

Hints on Using Quotes In Speeches

There is a right and a wrong way to use a quote in a speech.

  1. Use the quote correctly. Sometimes we hear a quote, think we remember it accurately, and then inadvertently misquote it. Look into the selection to be confident you have it right.
  2.  Please cite the source and be sure you are citing it accurately. The only thing worse than not stating the derivation of a quote is giving credit to the wrong person.
  3.  Use quotes sparingly. If you add too many quotes to your speech, they can take over. Remember that it is your speech, not someone else’s.

How Do Quotes Offer Credibility To A Speech?

Using a quote can offer credibility to a speech, particularly if you are using it to further expound upon a point or support a claim or assertion you are making. Finding a quote from someone considered an authority on the topic is an excellent way to bring listeners to share your opinions in a persuasive speech – especially if you are quoting a well-known person or someone renowned in their field.

Well-chosen and perfectly placed quotes can make a speech stand out.

How Do You Attribute The Author In Speeches?

When using a quote in a speech, giving the person credit for their words is always appropriate. There are different ways to do so. Note that when you see quotation marks at the beginning of the quote, you say the word quote in the speech. When you are at the end of the quote and see the quote marks, say end quote.

  • As Michael Jordan said, “Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships.”
  • “What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle, and giving 110% all the time.” These words were immortalized by Major League Baseball great Don Zimmer.
  •  You may put the quote and source on the visual aid when using a visual aid. Using italics, you can distinguish the quote from the information you have put together and include the attribution in writing.
Motivational speech quote with attribution

Famous Motivational Speech Quotes On Different Topics

When seeking the best motivational quotes, there are so many out there you might have difficulty picking just a few! On any subject, you can find well-known popular speakers like Tony Evans or Brene Brown or impressive local talent.

What Are 10 Positive Quotes?

  1. “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
  2.  “Magic is believing in yourself. If you can make that happen, you can make anything happen.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
  3.  “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” ―Napoleon Hill
  4.  “Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” — Will Rogers
  5.  “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” ―Theodore Roosevelt
  6.  “Motivation comes from working on things that we care about.” — Sheryl Sandberg
  7.  “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ―Thomas A. Edison
  8.  “Do what is easy, and your life will be hard. Do what is hard, and your life will become easy.” – Les Brown
  9.  “I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” — Thomas Jefferson
  10.  “What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.” –Oscar Wilde

What Are 10 Motivational Quotes?

  1. “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” – Zig Ziglar
  2.  “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” — Walt Disney
  3.  “The big secret in life is that there is no secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.” ―Oprah Winfrey
  4.  “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ―Aristotle
  5.  “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” — William James
  6.  “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” ―Vincent Van Gogh
  7.  “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” ―Ayn Rand
  8.  “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe
  9.  “Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.” – Wayne Dyer
  10.  “Winning means you’re willing to go longer, work harder, and give more than anyone else.” ―Vince Lombardi
Motivational speech quotes - Walt Disney

What Are 10 Quotes About Success?

  1. “Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm” ―Winston Churchill
  2.  “Nothing will work unless you do.” ―Maya Angelou
  3.  “Try not to become a man of success, but rather become a man of value.” ―Albert Einstein
  4.  “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” — Mark Twain
  5.  “If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.” ―Jim Rohn
  6.  “Unsuccessful people make their decisions based on their current situations. Successful people make their decisions based on where they want to be.” ―Benjamin Hardy
  7.  “If you talk about it, it’s a dream. If you envision it, it’s possible. If you schedule it, it’s real.” ―Tony Robbins
  8.  “Success usually comes to those who are too busy looking for it.” — Henry David Thoreau
  9.  “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ―C.S. Lewis
  10.  “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” ―Bill Gates

What Are Some Good Inspirational Sayings?

  1. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” — Steve Jobs
  2.  “If something is important enough, even if the odds are stacked against you, you should still do it.” — Elon Musk
  3.  “You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” — George Lorimer
  4.  “I never lose. Either I win or learn.” ―Nelson Mandela
  5.  “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
  6.  “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” -Benjamin Franklin
  7.  “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” — Babe Ruth
  8.  “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is a success.” — Henry Ford
  9.  “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” ―Abraham Lincoln
  10.  “Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat is accepted as a reality.” ―Bruce Lee
Motivational speech quote - Emerson

What 10 Good Quotes For Someone Who Is Feeling Down?

  1. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” ―Confucius
  2.  “Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you.” —Walt Whitman
  3.  “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” —Martin Luther King, Jr. “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss
  4.  “You do not find a happy life. You make it.” —Thomas S. Monson
  5.  “Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” —Roald Dahl
  6.  “Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” – Dr. Seuss
  7.  “Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.” — Dalai Lama
  8.  “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” —Helen Keller
  9.  “Do the best you can. No one can do more than that.” ―John Wooden
  10.  “We become what we think about all day long.” – Earl Nightingale

Pam Berg

A former English teacher and currently an elementary principal in a rural school, Pam has honed her speaking skills in the classroom and before professional groups. Pam enjoys sharing her insights about public speaking almost as much as she enjoys running, which she does daily.

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