30 Deep Quotes That'll Make You Sound Smart (2024)

Did you know using quotes in your presentations or meetings has a benefit beyond simply filling that extra slide you didn’t know what to do with?

PresentationLoad CEO Tom Becker-Schweitzer says, “The brain automatically links our existing experience with other experiences, thus actively engaging the brain with new content. If you incorporate a captivating quote with a powerful image in your presentation, your audience will make connections automatically.”

In a professional setting, you need those automatic connections to move your audience to action. You also want to build your authority as a subject-matter expert and trusted advisor.

To do that, I’ve pulled 25 quotes that will make you sound smart and in control of each meeting you attend and every presentation you give. (I designed the quote images using Canva.)

Deep Quotes

1. “There are only two great tragedies in life: one is not getting what you want and the other is getting it.” -Oscar Wilde

2. “Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren’t. I’m not surprised some people prefer books.” -Julian Barnes

3. “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” -Buddha

4. "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." -Albert Einstein

5. “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” -James Baldwin

6. “Sometimes the questions are complicated, and the answers are simple.” -Dr. Seuss

7. “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.” -Mark Twain

8. "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." -Albert Einstein

9. "Knowing what must be done does away with fear.” -Rosa Parks

10. "Holding onto your anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” -Buddha

11.“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”-Søren Kierkegaard

12. “It’s not that I’m so smart. It’s just that I stay with problems longer.” -Albert Einstein

13. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” -Confucius

14. "The two most important days of your life are the day that you’re born and the day that you find out why.” -Mark Twain

15. "Education is not the learning of the facts, but the training of the mind to think." -Albert Einstein

16. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” -Robert Frost

17. “The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” -Thich Nhat Hanh

18. “A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” -Maya Angelou

19. “We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.” -George Bernard Shaw

20. “Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.” -Elbert Hubbard

21. “If you surrender to the wind, you can ride it.” -Toni Morrison

22. “We don’t see things the way they are. We see them the way we are.” -Talmud

23. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” -Lao Tzu

24. “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

25. “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” -John Wooden

26. “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” -Flannery O’Connor

27. “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

28. “Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.” -Harper Lee

29. “Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences.” -J.K. Rowling

30. “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” -F. Scott Fitzgerald

Didn’t find a quote that’s quite right here? Check out this post of 70 motivational quotes, these quotes by great female leaders, and this list of motivational songs to get you pumped to present.