25 Advertising Quotes To Inspire You

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When it comes to your advertising career (or any career for that matter), you are standing on the shoulders of giants. Some great men and women have come before you who forged new paths, broke rules, reinvented techniques and made modern advertising possible.

However, these men and women did more than inspire generations of advertisers and marketers. They broke new ground on business methods that have fundamentally changed the way we do business. So, to go back into the archives and look at their best quotes is not only good advice, it's crucial in remembering where you came from. 

Here are 25 stunning quotes from ad legends, broken down into four important categories. Use them in your daily work life, and be inspired. 

On Creation

"Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together." Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
"Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle." Ken Hakuta
"Anyone can look for fashion in a boutique or history in a museum. The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store and fashion in an airport." Robert Wieder
"It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers." James Thurber
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when you grow up." Pablo Picasso
"It takes courage to be creative. Just as soon as you have a new idea, you are a minority of one." E. Paul Torrance
"A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something." Frank Capra
"There's nothing more dangerous than an idea, when it's the only one you have." Emile Chartier
"The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas." Linus Pauling
"Nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising." David Ogilvy
"When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either." Leo Burnett

On Work Life

"Our offices must always be headed by the kind of men who command respect. Not phonies, zeros or bastards." David Ogilvy
"Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise." Ted Turner
"Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for." Ray Bradbury
"Learn the rules. Then learn how to change them, and get others to follow." Heidi Minx
"The only way to keep on top of creativity internationally, is to be part of it internationally." Peet Pienaar

On Customers

"I am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death." Leo Burnett
"Customers buy for their reasons, not yours." Orvel Ray Wilson
"Don't tell me how good you make it; tell me how good it makes me when I use it." Leo Burnett
"If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language in which they think." David Ogilvy

On Selling

"The greatest thing to be achieved in advertising, in my opinion, is believability, and nothing is more believable than the product itself." Leo Burnett
"If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative." David Ogilvy
"Just because your ad looks good is no insurance that it will get looked at. How many people do you know who are impeccably groomed . . . but dull?" William Bernbach
"In the advertising din of today, unless you make yourself noticed and believed, you ain't got nothin'." Leo Burnett
"There is a great deal of advertising that is much better than the product. When that happens, all that the good advertising will do is put you out of business faster." Jerry Della Famina