Nancy Duarte Quotes & Sayings

Practice design, Not Decoration: Don't just make pretty talking points. Instead, display information in a way that makes complex information clear. — Nancy Duarte

Spending energy to understand the audience and carefully crafting a message that resonates with them means making a commitment of time and discipline to the process. — Nancy Duarte

Some people rehearse to a point where they're robotic, and they sound like they have memorized their presentation and didn't take it to the next level. Going from sounding memorized and canned to sounding natural is a lot of work. — Nancy Duarte

To me, presentations are the most powerful device. You can't really name a movement that didn't start with the spoken word. — Nancy Duarte

Phrases that have historical significance or become headlines don't just magically appear in the moment. They are mindfully planned. — Nancy Duarte

If you feel tempted to use a picture of two hands shaking in front of a globe, put the pencil down, step away from the desk, and think about taking a vacation or investigating aromatherapy. — Nancy Duarte

The future isn't just a place you'll go. It's a place you will invent. — Nancy Duarte

Most presenters are consumed with preparing their content rapidly, which makes the material about their own narrow perspective. — Nancy Duarte

Presentations are the most amazing persuasion tool available in organizations today — Nancy Duarte

Your ability to shape your future depends on how well you communicate where you want to be when you get there. When ideas are communicated effectively, people follow and change. — Nancy Duarte

Don't blend in; instead, clash with your environment. Stand out. Be different. That's what will draw attention to your ideas. Nothing has intrinsic attention-grabbing power by itself. The power lies in how much something stands out from its context. — Nancy Duarte

My best advice is to not start in PowerPoint. Presentation tools force you to think through information linearly, and you really need to start by thinking of the whole instead of the individual lines. — Nancy Duarte

Personal stories are the emotional glue that connects your audience to your message. — Nancy Duarte

Words that are carefully framed and spoken are the most powerful means of communication there is. — Nancy Duarte

The future isn't a place that we're going to go, it's a place that you get to create. — Nancy Duarte

The only difference between the failure of a great idea and the success of a medocre idea was the way in which the idea was communicated. — Nancy Duarte

Sometimes all it takes is a kind word of encouragement to get your heroes back on the right path. — Nancy Duarte