Over many years, we have captured a long list of quotes which Early Stage companies may find inspiring. Among other things,
a thoughtful quote can make a great launching point for a presentation --- to customers, investors or your team. Feel
free to peruse our extensive library below. If something resonates for any reason, feel free to download or print them.
Each quote has been formatted for use in a presentation.
No nation
was ever ruined by trade.
Benjamin Franklin
American Polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S.
Things
are never going to turn out the way you think they will.
Alan
Arkin
American
Actor, Director and Screenwriter
The
biggest thing about negotiating: You’ve got to make sure you’re trying to
construct a good deal for them.
Al
Hoffman, Jr.
Real
Estate Developer, Former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal
Good judgment comes from experience and experience … well, that comes from poor judgment.
The only
way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past
them into the impossible.
Arthur
C. Clarke
Science
Fiction Writer
Being a great entrepreneur is doing all the things you love to do on the days you don’t feel like doing them.
Adapted from Julius Erving
If you
can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
Albert
Einstein
Theoretical
Physicist: Developed the Theory of Relativity
If I’m the
smartest guy in the room, I’m in the wrong room.
Alexander
Crowell
Managing
Director, PureTerra Ventures
Never
attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Elon cares
a lot about humanity, but he doesn’t really care about individual people all
that much.
Anonymous
A former
Tesla executive tells Wired
Elon Musk is in an "abusive" relationship with his employees
As our
circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness
surrounding it.
Albert
Einstein
Theoretical
Physicist: Developed the Theory of Relativity
Nothing is
easy. If you want to do nothing, that’s easy.
Mediocre
people are always at their best.
Proofread
carefully to see if you any words out.
I never
read. I just look at pictures.
Andy
Warhol
American
Artist, Director and Producer
Try to
become not a [person] of success, but try rather to become a [person] of
value.
Albert
Einstein
Theoretical
Physicist: Developed the Theory of Relativity
The
secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
Albert
Einstein
Theoretical
Physicist: Developed the Theory of Relativity
In
everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into
flame by an encounter with another human being.
Albert
Schweitzer
Alsatian
Theologian, Organist, Writer, Humanitarian, Philosopher and Physician
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
Benjamin Franklin
American
Polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S.
Imagination
is more important than knowledge.
Albert
Einstein
Theoretical
Physicist: Developed the Theory of Relativity
When
you’re finished changing, you’re finished.
Benjamin
Franklin
American
Polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S.
Content is
king but context is the kingdom.
Amy
Ferris
Head of
Global Marketing, Apple Media Sales
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the entrepreneur adjusts the sails.
William Arthur Ward
Often Quoted Writer of Inspirational Maxims
Design is
an agent of change, which can help us to make sense of what is happening and
to turn it to our advantage.
Alice Rawsthorn
Design Critic and Author
Take my
factories and my money but leave me my salesmen and I’ll be back where I was
in two years.
Andrew
Carnegie
American
Industrialist
The best audience is intelligent, well-educated and a little drunk.
Alben W. Barkley
35th U.S. Vice President
Beer is
proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Benjamin Franklin
American Polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S.
It’s so
much easier to do something new than to do something well.
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go long, go together.
People
respond best to someone who is sure of what they want.
Anna
Wintour
British
Journalist
If you
think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in
the room.
Anita
Roddick
British
Businesswoman, Human Rights Activist, Environmental Campaigner
A fish
doesn’t know it’s wet.
When a
distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is
almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is
very probably wrong.
Arthur
C. Clarke
Science
Fiction Writer
Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.
Benjamin Franklin
American Polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S.
Any
sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur
C. Clarke
Science
Fiction Writer
Nothing
new ever happened before.
Benjamin Ferencz, Esq.
Lead
Prosecutor, Nuremberg Trials
Strategy
– is figuring out what is the most important thing for your company and
deciding to focus on it and say no to everything else.
Anonymous
Venture Capital Investor
Example is
not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.
Albert
Schweitzer
Alsatian
Theologian, Organist, Writer, Humanitarian, Philosopher and Physician
If you never retire, you will never expire.
Al Hoffman, Jr.
Real Estate Developer, Former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal
The power
of compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world.
Albert
Einstein
Theoretical
Physicist: Developed the Theory of Relativity
I am not a
fan of lost causes. But a … of causes not yet won.
I think
and think for months and years, ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false.
The hundredth time, I am right.
Albert
Einstein
Theoretical
Physicist: Developed the Theory of Relativity
Failing to plan, is planning to fail.
Benjamin Franklin
American Polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S.
A financier is a pawnbroker with imagination.
A.W. Pinero
English Actor, Dramatist and Stage Director
The
question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.
Ayn
Rand
Novelist,
Philosopher “Atlas Shrugged”
If you
can’t stand the heat, don’t tickle the dragon.
Typos in
your presentation tell your investors how carefully you plan to manage their
money.
The only
reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.
Albert
Einstein
Theoretical
Physicist: Developed the Theory of Relativity
We can’t
solve problems using the same thinking that we used when we created them.
Albert
Einstein
Theoretical
Physicist: Developed the Theory of Relativity
Give me a
place to stand, and I will move the earth.
Archimedes
Greek
Mathematician, Physicist, Engineer, Inventor, Astronomer
