25 Quotes on the Power of Story

One of the best ways to ignite innovation in your organization is to tell your own, first-person stories about it -- moments of truth that have happened to you on the job that have, embedded within them, the DNA of what it really takes to think out of the box and make wise choices. Next week, Idea Champions will be launching it's new workshop on this rarely considered topic. In the meantime, here are some wonderful quotes, excerpted from The Power of Personal Storytelling, for your inspiration. 1. "The world is not made of atoms. It is made of stories." - Muriel Ruykeser 2. "A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way." - Flannery O'Connor 3. "Telling someone about your experience breathes new life into it, moving it out of the inchoate swirl of unconsciousness into reality. It takes on form and allows us to examine it from all angles." - Mandy Aftel 4. "The most important question anyone can ask is: What myth am I living?" - Carl Jung 5. "Those who do not have the power over the story that dominates their lives, the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts." - Salman Rushdie 6. "Inside each of us is a natural born storyteller just waiting to be released." - Robin Moore 7. "A lost coin is found by means of a candle; the deepest truth is found by means of a simple story." - Anthony De Mello 8. "We need to look hard at the stories we create, and wrestle with them. Retell and retell them, and work with them like clay. It is in the retelling and returning that they give us their wisdom." - Marni Gillard 9. "Although setbacks of all kinds may discourage us, the grand, old process of storytelling puts us in touch with strengths we may have forgotten, with wisdom that has faded or disappeared, and with hopes that have fallen into darkness." - Nancy Mellon 10. "In my life, the stories I have heard from my family, my friends, my community, and from willing strangers all over the world have been the true source of my education." - Holly Near 11. "The role of the storyteller is to awaken the storyteller in others." - Jack Zipes 12. "Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward, and we want to sit in their radius. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand." - Karl Menninger 13. "Everybody likes to tell a story. Little children do it effortlessly. Great artists do it with talent and years of practice. Somewhere in between stand you and I." - Sylvia Ziskind 14. "Become aware of what is in you. Announce it, pronounce it, produce it, and give birth to it." - Meister Eckhart 15. "Every story you tell is your own story." - Joseph Campbell 16. "From my perspective as a depth psychologist, I see that those who have a connection with story are in better shape and have better prognosis than those to whom story must be introduced." - James Hillman 17. "The real difference between telling what happened and telling a story about what happened is that instead of being a victim of our past, we become master of it." - Donald Davis 18. "As a storyteller, as a human being, each one of us is one of a kind. And until we learn to celebrate our own unique style, culture, and gifts, we cannot appreciate the wealth of diversity around us." - Doug Lipman 19. "To believe your own thought, to believe what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men -- that is genius.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson 20. "A coherent life experience is not simply given. The thing must be made, a story-like production." - Stephen Crites 21. "When one is a stranger to oneself then one is estranged from others, too. If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh 22. "A life becomes meaningful when one sees himself as an actor within the context of story." - George Howard 23. "All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them." - Isak Dinesen 24. "You could say that telling a story is the pretext for getting together in a personal way." - Nancy Rambusch 25. "The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself." - Henry Miller