Make Churchill your muse
Edward R. Murrow said of Winston Churchill: “He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.”
He rallied the British, defied the Nazis and inspired the United States to fight. Some say he saved the Western world with his words.
“Never, never, never give up.”
He was captured by the Boers and escaped. He wrote about his military adventures in newspaper articles and books. By 1899, he was one of the highest paid and best known British war correspondents.
“Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”
In 1900, when Churchill came to the United States for a lecture tour, he was introduced by Mark Twain.
“There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you.”
He coined phrases like “Finest Hour,” “Never give in” and “Iron Curtain.” He showed that words can change people’s minds and move them to act.
“Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory.”
He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his contributions to the written word. In his spare time, he wrote 40 books in 60 volumes and painted more than 500 paintings.
“Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant.”
His words still inspire, 50 years after his death. He’s been quoted by presidents — and on Angelina Jolie.
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
May I ask why every corporate communicator on the planet isn’t using Churchill as her personal and professional muse? Why don’t we model his words every time we write a speech, a sound bite or an executive message?
“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”
Stop modeling tedious executive quotes.
One problem with executive quotes is that we model them after other executive quotes. That’s how we wind up putting together ridiculous lines like these, from the UK Press quote generator:
“A market first, our cutting-edge software product is a major move towards WAP-enablement.”
“Representing a radical step-change, our new product set tests the performance of enhanced customer care.”
“Out-of-the-box, our end-to-end solution recognises the importance of mission critical operations.”
If you want to write better quotes, steal from better sources. Raise the bar. Change the benchmark. Model the masters instead of the amateurs.
Raise the bar.
So instead of using other executive quotations as your models, model rhetorical masters like Churchill. He’s the guy who said:
“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”
And:
“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
And:
“Kites rise highest against the wind — not with it.”
Don’t you wish your executives sounded like that?
They would — if you wrote better sound bites.
Find quotes to model.
Once you run out of Churchill quotations, model Lincoln. Or Reagan. Or Clinton. Or George W. Bush. Or Obama.
Find world-class quotes to model at BrainyQuote and Fagan Finder’s Quotations and Proverbs Search.
Learn more about modeling the masters.
Win a free month of Rev Up Readership: Enter our executive quote contest today
Model the masters and win!
- Craft an executive quote modeled on a quote by Churchill or another rhetorical master.
- Share your sound bite, as well as the original quote, in the comments section of this story, by Aug. 21.
- Look for winners in the Aug. 28 edition of our newsletter. If you win, you’ll get a free, one-month subscription to Rev Up Readership.
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Learn to transform your quotations from bleh to brilliant at our NOT Your Father’s News Release Master Class on Sept. 6-7 in Atlanta
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