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Newsletter: #971: The “3 Great Quotes” Issue

[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]

This week, we’d like to share three quotes hung up in our office that represent some of the big ideas behind how we do business. Each is about more than just looking pretty on a poster — they’re all something you can apply to your own marketing philosophy.

They’re about:

1. A simple rule
2. Achieving failure
3. Being crazy
4. Check it out: Who said it? Kanye or Your Creative Director

1. A simple rule

Kurt Vonnegut poster

Photo thanks to Tim Doyle.

“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.'”

— Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

2. Achieving failure

Theodore Roosevelt poster

Photo thanks to Engrave.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

— Theodore Roosevelt, Citizenship in a Republic

3. Being crazy

Apple Inc. quote.

Photo thanks to Gapingvoid.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

— Apple Inc., Think Different

4. Check it out: Who said it? Kanye or Your Creative Director

Kanye vs. your creative director

Photo thanks to KanyeVSCreative.com.

Not all quotes can be this inspiring. So here are some less-than-great ones from Kanye West and creative directors from around the world. See if you can guess who said which ones.

Check it out: Who said it? Kanye or Your Creative Director

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