Dear Michelle,
You use quotations often in your columns and training events. Last week, you shared a quote about tension vs. relaxation in a seminar I attended. What was it? Do you have other favorites?

Hello and thanks for writing.

The quote you mention is a Chinese proverb: Tension is who you think you should be, relaxing is who you are. Isn’t that a valuable reminder to thine own self be true?

We inject quotes to spice up our presentations and sprinkle them throughout training events because they can be instructive as they resonate with adult learners.

Here are a few that teach me about living well every day, along the theme of wise women:

Each person’s life is lived as a series of conversations. – Deborah Tannen, American professor of linguistics at Georgetown University

Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. You must be able to sustain yourself against staggering blows. There is no code of conduct to help beginners. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but great inner drive, go much further than people with vastly superior talent. – Sophia Loren, Italian actress

I will tell you that there have been no failures in my life. I don’t want to sound like some metaphysical queen, but there have been no failures. There have been some tremendous lessons.
– Oprah Winfrey, American media owner, show host, actress, producer, philanthropist

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.
– Virginia Woolf, English writer

The most important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one’s work seriously and taking one’s self seriously. The first is imperative, and the second disastrous.
– Margot Fonteyn, English ballerina

If it’s very painful for you to criticize your friends — you’re safe in doing it. But if you take the slightest pleasure in it, that’s the time to hold your tongue.
– Alice Duer Miller, American writer

Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach.
– Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor of business at Harvard University

Attention without feeling is only a report.
– Mary Oliver, American Pulitzer prize poet

May these ideas be of benefit to you, and please stay in touch.