Using proverbs to improve executive speeches, presentations, articles

Judicious use of proverbs can add spice and wisdom to your presentation. They are less pretentious than many quotations and they are easy to use as well.

Let's say you are delivering a speech on the subject of marketing or sales strategy. The following Afghanistan proverb could dramatize your point beautifully: "If you deal in camels, make the doors high." The audience is going to remember that long after the coffee break.

For a Monday morning sales meeting, try this Chinese proverb: "He who waits for roast duck to fly into mouth must wait very long time."

Perhaps you are trying to persuade management that additional investment is needed to build market share. How about this Russian proverb: "Whoever owns the river bank owns the fish."

You get the idea. Proverbs are also excellent in talks delivered in foreign countries. If you are trying to persuade an Italian audience of the need for more cooperation, why not use this proverb from that country: "All the brains are not in one head." If you can get someone to teach you how to say it in Italian, so much the better.

For a talk about investment risk to a Portuguese audience, why not cite this proverb from that country: "One cannot fish for trout with dry trousers."

IdeaBank has thousands of proverbs from many lands and on a wide variety of subjects. To pull up what you need, just go to the Quotations file and type in your subject and then click the Proverbs checkbox.

If you want a proverb from a particular country, go to the Quotations file and do it like this: chinese proverb risk, or perhaps just this: german proverb.

There is an old Italian proverb: "What salt is to food, proverbs are to speech."

To make your presentations better, take advantage of their versatility and power.