Call me cheesy, but I love quotes. They help me remind myself of things I care about, things I need to improve, and things I’ve forgotten.
I find that the most interesting branding quotes weren’t intended to be about branding. But even so, they are. Perhaps it’s because branding is poetic. Perhaps it’s because human truths are branding truths. Perhaps it’s because brands are about much more than logos and colors — because brands have a soul, values, and heart.
Here are some unconventional branding quotes I love that get to the heart of what branding is all about:
Who you are is what you settle for, you know?
— Janis Joplin
You have to do the research. If you don’t know about something, then you ask the right people who do.
— Spike Lee
Ultimately, you have to pursue your own path, not someone’s idea of the right path. You need to stay on your path.
— Baz Luhrmann
I think knowing what you cannot do is more important than knowing what you can.
— Lucille Ball
I’ll come to you with gifts of knowledge, wisdom and truth.
— Barry White
Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act.
— Leonard Cohen
It’s easy to fool the eye but it’s hard to fool the heart.
— Al Pacino
What is really beautiful must always be true.
— Stendhal
Adventure is worthwhile.
— Aesop
Create your own visual style… let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.
— Orson Welles
If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.
— Marc Chagall
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
— Richard P. Feynman
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
— Michelangelo
Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.
— Dwayne Johnson
Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it.
— Joseph Conrad
You change the world by being yourself.
— Yoko Ono
My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.
— Stephen Hawking
I think it’s a part of us as human beings that we search outside of ourselves for meaning.
— Nick Cave
There is no instinct like that of the heart.
— Lord Byron
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
— Albert Einstein
Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling?
— M.C. Escher
If you’re you, it doesn’t matter if you’re the most boring person in the world: someone will like you. You’re not trying to be anyone else.
— Lil Uzi Vert
You just gotta keep going and fighting for everything, and one day you’ll get to where you want.
— Naomi Osaka
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
— Henry David Thoreau
It’s not bragging if you can back it up.
— Muhammad Ali
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
— Carl Sagan
Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.
— Buddha
In the fight between you and the world, back the world.
— Franz Kafka
I will always be as difficult as necessary to achieve the best.
— Maria Callas
I’m gonna make what I want to make, and other people are gonna like what they’re gonna like.
— Billie Eilish
Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.
— Swami Sivanda
The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.
— Thomas Berger
Character is fate.
— Heraclitus