The Best Quotes to Use on Your Resume

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In this article, you will learn:, quotes you can use on your resume to show more about your personality, where to put a quote in a resume.

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A quote is an excellent way to help your resume stand out from the stack. You will be more likely to get a call back if you choose the perfect quote and properly format it on your resume.

Read on to learn more about what a quotation should look like on your resume.

  • Great examples of quotes to use on your resume
  • The right way to include a quotation on your resume

The quotation you choose says a lot about who you are and your personality. Choose a quote that reflects your own philosophy about work or life to teach your employer more about yourself.

Quotes are a fantastic supplement to the skills and achievements already on your resume. They provide personality and set you apart from candidates with similar experiences.

Quotes about hard work

"The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense." -Thomas Edison

"Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy." -Robert Half

"There's no talent here, this is hard work. This is an obsession … I am not talented. I am obsessed." -Conor McGregor

"Ideas do not work … It is YOU who has to do the work." -Manoj Arora

"Work hard, keep your nose clean, and just stick around." -Clint Eastwood

Quotes about journeys

“Not all who wander are lost.” -J.R.R. Tolkein

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” -Ursula K. Le Guin

“The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.” *Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.” -Henry Ward Beecher

“I made up my mind not to care so much about the destination, and simply enjoy the journey.” -David Archuleta

Quotes about never backing down

"Perseverance is the act of true role models and heroes." -Liza Weimer

"Experts were once amateurs who kept practicing." -Amit Kalantri

“Never give up, never back down!” -Jean Roqua

“Failure comes when we don’t get back up and try again.” -Jack White

“If you fall, get back up. That’s what life is about.” -Keith Sweat

"Quotes about working smart"

“The most successful men work smart, not hard” -Bangambiki Habyarimana

“Those who work hard, work alone. Those who work smart, work as a team.” -Utibe Samuel Mbom

“It's not all about how you work hard but it's about how you manage your time, resources, mind to work together for a better output.” -Jayson Zabate

“Working hard and working smart sometimes can be two different things.” -Byron Dorgan

“Work smart. Get things done. No nonsense.” -Susan Wojcicki

Quotes belong in the header or summary of your resume.

Check out these resume examples to learn more about what your resume quotations should look like. For more help, choose one of these resume templates with a quote section already set up for your use.

Resume quotes are an excellent way to display your personality and make you more memorable. Including quotes on your resume could make you more likely to get an interview. Include your quote in either the header or summary sections when creating your resume .

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64 Best Resume Quotes To Use On Your Resume To Make It Attractive To Employers

  • Last Updated on February 26, 2023

Resume Quotes

Resume Quotes

A Resume is a summary document of an individual’s personal and professional qualities. It entails educational, professional, and relevant qualifications of the individual and the necessary details that will make an employer give you a job.

Here are Resume Quotes that can be used in your Cv and can also serve as a guide as to what an employer needs on a Resume.

If you like these Resume Quotes, You will love these Career Quotes, Skills Quotes , and Motivational Quotes .

Related – 7 Best Activities To Add To Your Resume

– 19 Simple Hobbies To Make Your Resume Appealing To Employers

Best Resume Quotes

Here are some of the best Quotes to help you craft your best Resume ever and make you more appealing to your Future employers. These Quotes will help you

Resume Quotes about perfection

  • “Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.” —Antoine de Saint Exupéry
  • “No one creates a perfect resume on their first try. Writing a perfect resume is a messy process, but the easiest way to start is by simply getting in the right mindset and putting pen to paper.” ― Matthew T. Cross
  • “There’s a great power in words if you don’t hitch too many of them together.” —Josh Billings

Resume Quotes about Power

  • “The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.” —Thomas Jefferson
  • “Rereading reveals rubbish and redundancy.” —Duane Alan Hahn
  • “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” —Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • “As to the adjective, when in doubt, strike it out.” —Mark Twain
  • “I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.” —Truman Capote
  • “The shorter and the plainer the better.” —Beatrix Potter
  • “Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subject only in outline, but that every word tell.” —William Strunk, Jr.

Quotes About Resumes

  • “Resumes are incapable of holistically communicating a candidates value.” ― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr
  • “Credentials are like potential energy, the compliments of a name on paper, in documents, word of mouth, but faith is like kinetic energy, the motion and the force that which is witnessed. Hence in the end it is the faith rather than the credentials that really takes you places.” ― Criss Jami, Killosophy
  • “The resume focuses on you and the past. The cover letter focuses on the employer and the future. Tell the hiring professional what you can do to benefit the organization in the future. (12)” ― Joyce Lain Kennedy
  • “Life is our resume. It is our story to tell, and the choices we make write the chapters. Can we live in a way where we look forward to looking back?” ― Matthew McConaughey
  • “A huge number of jobs that are filled are never advertised to the public, or if they are, they’re filled by people who have a connection to the employer.” ― Melanie Pinola
  • “Not every single broke and unemployed person needs a job; some need customers.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
  • “Write like you speak with the ‘rhythms of human speech,’ as William Zinsser said, and in as few words as possible. Use action verbs to carry water.” ― Sandra E. Lamb
  • “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans. So does your résumé. It takes on a life of its own if you let it. Some people try to map out their paths and plan every step, but in reality, life hands you something better. A dead end is really a detour to a new route you hadn’t planned on taking. Every experience enhances your life now or later.” ― Regina Brett
  • “I find it a challenge to cooperate in a society where it’s considered moral to critique a résumé yet immoral to critique morality.” ― Criss Jami

Famous Resume Quotes

Using Quotes in your Resume helps to make you stand out and show your personality and Aspirations. Here are some inspirational Quotes to include in your resume.

Quotes about Perseverance and Not giving up

Check out these inspirational quotes for students and professionals about not giving up on your goals and Ideals.

  • “You can’t fall if you don’t climb. But there’s no joy in living your whole life on the ground.” —Unknown
  • “Failure comes when we don’t get back up and try again.” -Jack White
  • “If you fall, get back up. That’s what life is about.” -Keith Sweat
  • “Perseverance is the act of true role models and heroes.” -Liza Weimer
  • Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. —George Addair
  • “Experts were once amateurs who kept practicing.” -Amit Kalantri
  • “Never give up, never back down!” -Jean Roqua
  • “We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.” -Henry Ward Beecher

Quotes about hard work

Here are some Work Quotes to include in your Resume and guide you when writing your Resume.

  • “The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” -Thomas Edison
  • “Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy.” -Robert Half
  • “There’s no talent here, this is hard work. This is an obsession … I am not talented. I am obsessed.” -Conor McGregor
  • “Working hard and working smart sometimes can be two different things.” -Byron Dorgan
  • “Work smart. Get things done. No nonsense.” -Susan Wojcicki
  • “Ideas do not work … It is YOU who has to do the work.” -Manoj Arora
  • “Work hard, keep your nose clean, and just stick around.” -Clint Eastwood
  • “The most successful men work smart, not hard” -Bangambiki Habyarimana
  • “Those who work hard, work alone. Those who work smart, work as a team.” -Utibe Samuel Mbom
  • “It’s not all about how you work hard but it’s about how you manage your time, resources, mind to work together for a better output.” -Jayson Zabate

Inspirational Resume Quotes

Check out some of the best inspirational Quotes to include in your Resume and make it more appealing to your future employer. These Career Quotes will guide in your pursuit of Success and help you be your best self.

  • Life isn’t about getting and having, it’s about giving and being. —Kevin Kruse
  • Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. —Napoleon Hill
  • Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. —Albert Einstein
  • I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse. —Florence Nightingale
  • You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. —Wayne Gretzky
  • We become what we think about. —Earl Nightingale
  • Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover. —Mark Twain
  • Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. —Charles Swindoll
  • Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. —Henry Ford
  • The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. —Mark Twain
  • Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily. —Zig Ziglar
  • If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced. —Vincent Van Gogh
  • 1There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. —Aristotle
  • Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. —Jesus
  • The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. —Henry David Thoreau
  • When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me. —Erma Bombeck
  • Believe you can and you’re halfway there. —Theodore Roosevelt
  • When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life. —John Lennon
  • If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on. —Sheryl Sandberg

Resume Quotes

  • We must believe that we are gifted with something and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained. —Marie Curie
  • Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. —Les Brown
  • “Not all who wander are lost.” -J.R.R. Tolkein
  • “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” -Ursula K. Le Guin
  • “The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.” *Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • “I made up my mind not to care so much about the destination, and simply enjoy the journey.” -David Archuleta

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10 Inspiring and Impactful Quotes to Include on Your Resume

Good quotes for resume, introduction.

Including quotes on a resume can greatly enhance its impact and catch the attention of prospective employers. Quotes can serve as powerful tools to showcase personal values, motivations, and traits that align with the desired qualities sought by employers.

Quotes that Highlight Personal Values

Personal values are an essential part of an individual’s character, and incorporating quotes that highlight these values can be highly advantageous in a resume.

Quote 1: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

The significance of this quote lies in its ability to convey ambition and determination. By including this quote, you demonstrate your unwavering belief in your dreams and your commitment to pursuing them. Prospective employers will be intrigued by your drive and motivation to succeed.

Quote 2: “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.” – Albert Schweitzer

In a professional context, it is crucial to emphasize personal well-being and happiness. This quote reminds us that true success is rooted in happiness. By prioritizing your well-being, you enhance your overall performance and productivity, making you an enticing candidate.

Quotes that Promote Resilience and Perseverance

Resilience and perseverance are highly valued qualities in the workplace. Including quotes that showcase these traits can demonstrate your ability to bounce back from setbacks and continue moving forward.

Quote 3: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

This quote beautifully captures the essence of resilience. It highlights that success is an ongoing journey and that setbacks are not permanent obstacles. By including this quote, you convey your tenacity and determination to overcome challenges, which can impress potential employers.

Quote 4: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs

Passion and dedication are crucial factors in achieving career success. This quote reminds us that true fulfillment comes from loving the work we do. Including this quote on your resume shows employers that you are genuinely invested in your profession, making you a valuable asset to any team.

Quotes that Emphasize Teamwork and Collaboration

Teamwork and collaboration are fundamental skills in most working environments. Quotes that emphasize these qualities can demonstrate your ability to work harmoniously with others towards a shared goal.

Quote 5: “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

This quote powerfully highlights the importance of teamwork and collaboration skills. It signifies that unity and collaboration can achieve far more than individual efforts. Including this quote on your resume shows employers that you are a team player with excellent interpersonal skills.

Quote 6: “Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success.” – Henry Ford

This quote emphasizes the significance of fostering strong working relationships. It signifies that success is not solely achieved by individual efforts but by the collective effort of a well-working team. In your resume, including this quote can demonstrate your ability to build and maintain effective working relationships.

Quotes that Inspire Creativity and Innovation

Creativity and innovation are highly sought-after qualities in today’s competitive work environment. By including quotes that inspire these traits, you can showcase your ability to think outside the box and drive innovation.

Quote 7: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs

This quote promotes the importance of thinking differently and embracing innovation. By including this quote on your resume, you demonstrate your vision and creativity, positioning yourself as an individual who can drive innovation within an organization.

Quote 8: “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein

This quote beautifully captures the essence of creativity and its connection to intelligence. It signifies that being creative is not a burden but rather an enjoyable process. By including this quote, you highlight your ability to think differently and bring fresh perspectives to problem-solving situations.

Quotes that Showcase Leadership Qualities

Leadership qualities are highly valued in the professional world. Including quotes that showcase these qualities can set you apart as a potential leader and demonstrate your ability to inspire and motivate others.

Quote 9: “Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge.” – Simon Sinek

This quote highlights the importance of empathy and servant leadership. By including this quote on your resume, you emphasize your commitment to nurturing and supporting your team members, proving that you possess the necessary qualities to lead effectively.

Quote 10: “The best leaders are those most interested in surrounding themselves with assistants and associates smarter than they are.” – John C. Maxwell

This quote emphasizes the value of humility and a willingness to learn from others. Including this quote on your resume showcases your eagerness to collaborate with talented individuals and your recognition of the importance of collective intelligence in achieving success.

Including impactful quotes on a resume is a powerful way to make a lasting impression on prospective employers. Quotes that showcase personal values, resilience, teamwork, creativity, and leadership qualities can help you stand out among other candidates and increase your chances of securing the desired position.

When choosing quotes for your resume, ensure that they align with your personal values and goals. Selecting quotes that resonate with you on a deeper level will allow you to authentically showcase yourself to potential employers.

Remember, a well-crafted resume with powerful quotes can be the key to opening doors to new opportunities. So, don’t hesitate to leverage the impact of quotes to leave a lasting impression!

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300+ Powerful Resume Writing Quotes to Inspire Your Team

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Today We put together a list of the best inspirational quotes for your resume writing business, that are loved and highly shared throughout our Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook pages.

These resume writing quotes are those little reminders we all need every now and then and some are powerful enough to inspire us for the whole week.

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Here Are 60 Inspirational Quotes About Resume Writing

Top 50 best resume writing quotes, professional resume writing quotes, famous resume writing quotes, positive quotes for resume writing, funny resume writing quotes, my personal favourite resume writing quotes.

We hope you enjoyed these inspirational resume writing quotes today and that they helped your day be a little bit better.

Which resume writing quote from above is your favorite and why? Share it with us in the comments!

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  • The Inspirational Career...

The Inspirational Career Quotes You Need for Your Career

6 min read · Updated on December 11, 2021

Tyler Omoth

These wise words will leave you ready to tackle any of your career goals.

Whether you're looking for that perfect job, trying to make the most of your current job, or building a business all on your own, it's time to refocus your energy on your career. It's easy to get excited and feel amped up and ready to take on the world, but that feeling can be difficult to sustain over time. So what do you do? You look to the men and women who inspire us to keep pushing forward and listen to their words.

Here is a collection of inspirational career quotes to fire you up and dare you to push your career forward to the next level.

Job-hunting motivation

The grind of looking for a new job can be exhausting. Don't let it get you down and don't lose focus. These words of wisdom will help you reach for the stars while staying motivated to press on in that search for the perfect job: 

“Find out what you like doing best, and get someone to pay you for it.” – Katharine Whithorn

“The future depends on what you do today.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Opportunities don't happen, you create them.” – Chris Grosser

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.” – Steve Jobs

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius

quotes for resume writing

Jump-starting your career motivation

Procrastination is the easiest trap to fall into when you're working on your goals. You've set your calendar and you know what you need to do, but do you need to do it today? Yes! Those items are not going to check themselves off of your list, and the longer you wait, the longer it will take to reach your goals. Listen to the wisdom of these people and take it to heart:

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Wishing is not enough; we must do.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“We generate fears while we sit. We overcome them by action.” – Dr. Henry Link

“You're not supposed to do this perfectly. You don't do life perfectly. No one does.” – Michelle Obama

“If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.” – Olin Miller

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” – Stephen King

“Great acts are made up of small deeds.” – Lao Tzu

quotes for resume writing

Risk-taking motivation

If you're looking to shake things up and move your career forward, it may seem scary. You can't get big results without taking a risk, and that means there's a chance it could go wrong. So, if you want to play it safe, that's OK. Just realize that you won't be making any progress. But if you're ready to make a splash, let these motivational quotes rev your engine and boost your courage:

“People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Rob Siltanen

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis

"The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you." – William Jennings Bryan

"Successful people have fear, successful people have doubts, and successful people have worries. They just don't let these feelings stop them." – T. Harv Eker

“You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.” – Wayne Gretzky

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein

quotes for resume writing

Personal-growth motivation

Sometimes the best way to grow your career is to work on yourself. Is now the time you decide to learn new skills or change your way of thinking?  We get it — changing yourself is a lot harder than sprucing up your wardrobe or reorganizing your workspace. That means it can be easy to get discouraged, but don't lose faith. Keep your eye on the prize with these quotes that will inspire you to be the best you that you can be: 

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Happiness is not something readymade. It comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama

“Whatever you are, be a good one.” – Abraham Lincoln

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” – Viktor E. Frankl

“From my point of view, which is that of a storyteller, I see your life as something artful, waiting, just waiting and ready for you to make it art.” – Toni Morrison

“Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.” – Dennis Waitley

quotes for resume writing

Entrepreneurship motivation

Have you been dreaming of being your own boss? Do you currently own and operate your own business, but think you're ready to take it to the next level? Entrepreneurs are the people who dare to dream big and go for it. But sometimes those big dreams can seem a little daunting. Fear not. These inspirational career quotes will give you the courage and motivation to keep your entrepreneurial spirit alive and well:

“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” – Farrah Gray

“The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, 'I'm possible!'” – Audrey Hepburn

“It's not about ideas. It's about making ideas happen.” – Scott Belsky, co-founder of Behance .

“In every success story, you will find someone who has made a courageous decision.” – Peter F. Drucker

“My best advice to entrepreneurs is this: Forget about making mistakes, just do it.” – Ajaero Tony Martins

“Ambition is the steam that drives men forward on the road to success. Only the engine under full steam can make the grade.” – Maxi Foreman

quotes for resume writing

Don't be afraid to make bold decisions and set big goals for yourself because success is built upon big dreams. If you do get sidetracked or discouraged, don't fret. Just keep this list of remarkably motivational quotes bookmarked and you'll have just the pep talk you need, whenever you need it. And remember:

“People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing. That's why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar

quotes for resume writing

Ready to make some big career moves, but not sure if your resume is up to par? Check today with a free resume review . 

Recommended Reading:

Finding Inspiration: Remembering Toni Morrison

How to Simplify Your Search in 3 Easy Steps: Prep, Search, Close

5 Lessons From Marie Kondo to Help You Tidy Up Your Job Search

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Blog • Perfecting your Craft

Posted on Mar 29, 2019

170 Writing Quotes by Famous Authors for Every Occasion

When you're feeling stuck on your novel, an important thing to remember is that we've all been there in the past. That's right — even the J.K Rowling's and Ernest Hemingway's of this world. Which is why it's always a great idea to turn to your most famous peers (and their writing quotes) for inspiration.

Without further ado, here are 170 writing quotes  to guide you through every stage of writing. ( Yes! We've added more since we first published this post! )

The number one piece of advice that most authors have for other authors is to read, read, read. Here’s why.

1. “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools ) to write. Simple as that.” — Stephen King
2. “You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.” — Annie Proulx
3. “Indeed, learning to write may be part of learning to read. For all I know, writing comes out of a superior devotion to reading.” — Eudora Welty
4. “Read, read, read. Read everything  —  trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.” — William Faulkner
5. “I kept always two books in my pocket: one to read, one to write in.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
6. “The Six Golden Rules of Writing: Read, read, read, and write, write, write.” — Ernest Gaines
7. “The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.” — Samuel Johnson
8. “Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.” ― Lisa See
9. “One sure window into a person’s soul is his reading list.” — Mary B. W. Tabor

writing quotes-4

The well of inspiration, we’re afraid, often does run dry. Here are the writing quotes to replenish it and, hopefully, remind you that there might be a story idea waiting for you just around the corner of life.

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10. "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." — Toni Morrison
11. “Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” — Orson Scott
12. “Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.” — Stephen King
13. “Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.” — Mark Twain
14. “When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.” — George Orwell
15. “Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.” — Natalie Goldberg
16. “You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” — Madeleine L'Engle
17. “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” — Henry David Thoreau
18. “Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.” — William S. Burroughs
19. “Write what should not be forgotten.” — Isabel Allende
20. “The story must strike a nerve in me. My heart should start pounding when I hear the first line in my head. I start trembling at the risk.” — Susan Sontag
21. “Sometimes the ideas just come to me. Other times I have to sweat and almost bleed to make ideas come. It’s a mysterious process, but I hope I never find out exactly how it works. I like a mystery, as you may have noticed.” — J.K. Rowling
22. “As for ‘Write what you know,’ I was regularly told this as a beginner. I think it’s a very good rule and have always obeyed it. I write about imaginary countries, alien societies on other planets, dragons, wizards, the Napa Valley in 22002. I know these things. I know them better than anybody else possibly could, so it’s my duty to testify about them.” — Ursula K. Le Guin
23. “I’m very lucky in that I don’t understand the world yet. If I understood the world, it would be harder for me to write these books.” — Mo Willems
24. “Ideas are cheap. It’s the execution that is all important.” — George R.R. Martin
25. “If you wait for inspiration to write you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.” — Dan Poynter

Now, finding your "voice" is not as simple as entering a nationally-televised competition on NBC ( nyuk nyuk! ). Yet your voice will define you as a writer, and these famous writers have plenty of tips and writing quotes for you when it comes to finding it.

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26. “To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.” — Allen Ginsberg
27. “One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” — Jack Kerouac
28. “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” —Robert Frost
29. “It is only by writing, not dreaming about it, that we develop our own style.” — P.D. James
30. “Voice is not just the result of a single sentence or paragraph or page. It’s not even the sum total of a whole story. It’s all your work laid out across the table like the bones and fossils of an unidentified carcass.” — Chuck Wendig
31. “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.” — Elmore Leonard
32. “Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul.” — Meg Rosoff
33. “I don’t want just words. If that’s all you have for me, you’d better go.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
34. “Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.” — Virginia Woolf
35. “Everywhere I go, I’m asked if the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them.” — Flannery O’Connor
36. “There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn’t because the book is not there and worth being written — it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and, if you fail to find that form, the story will not tell itself.” — Mark Twain

writing quotes-2

37. “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” — Louis L’Amour
38. “First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him.” — Ray Bradbury
39. “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” — Ernest Hemingway
40. “Focus more on your desire than on your doubt, and the dream will take care of itself.” — Mark Twain
41. “Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of job: It’s always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins.” — Neil Gaiman
42. “It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.” — Ernest Hemingway
43. “It doesn’t matter how many book ideas you have if you can’t finish writing your book.” — Joe Bunting
44. “If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.” — Margaret Atwood
45. “A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.” — Sidney Sheldon
46. “I am not at all in a humor for writing; I must write on until I am.” — Jane Austen
47. "Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good." — William Faulkner
48. “One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what, and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I’ll have lost nothing — writing and tearing up five pages would leave me no further behind than if I took the day off.” — Lawrence Block
49. “Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.” — John Steinbeck
50. “You can fix anything but a blank page.” — Nora Roberts
51. “I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.” — Pearl S. Buck
52. “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and bleed.” — Ernest Hemingway

Don’t get discouraged if you get this far and you’re thinking that your first draft is rather poor. These writing quotes are reminders that it’s just part of the process.

53. “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” — Terry Pratchett
54. “Get through a draft as quickly as possible.” — Joshua Wolf Shenk
55. “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” — Douglas Adams
56. “The first draft of everything is shit.” — Ernest Hemingway
57. “There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.” — Frank Herbert
58. “I would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them — without a thought about publication — and only in the last draft to consider how the work will look from the outside.” — Anne Tyler
59. “I just give myself permission to suck. I delete about 90 percent of my first drafts, so it doesn’t really matter much if on a particular day I write beautiful and brilliant prose that will stick in the minds of my readers forever, because there’s a 90 percent chance I’m just going to delete whatever I write anyway. I find this hugely liberating.” — John Green
60. “Be willing to write really badly.” — Jennifer Egan
61. “On first drafts: It is completely raw, the sort of thing I feel free to do with the door shut — it’s the story undressed, standing up in nothing but its socks and undershorts.” — Stephen King
62. “I do not over-intellectualise the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.” — Tom Clancy
63. “Anyone who says writing is easy isn’t doing it right.” — Amy Joy

writing quotes-3

64. “You fail only if you stop writing.” — Ray Bradbury
65. “If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.” — Isaac Asimov
66. “Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.” — Ray Bradbury
67. “You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.” ― Octavia E. Butler
68. “I believe myself that a good writer doesn’t really need to be told anything except to keep at it.” — Chinua Achebe
69. “The secret to being a writer is that you have to write. It’s not enough to think about writing or to study literature or plan a future life as an author. You really have to lock yourself away, alone, and get to work.” — Augusten Burroughs
70. “It is by sitting down to write every morning that one becomes a writer.” — Gerald Brenan
71. “Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but most of all, endurance.” — James Baldwin
72. “You just have to go on when it is worst and most helpless — there is only one thing to do with a novel and that is go straight on through to the end of the damn thing.” — Ernest Hemingway
73. “We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” — Kurt Vonnegut
74. “The nearest I have to a rule is a Post-it on the wall in front of my desk saying ‘Faire et se taire’ from Flaubert. Which I translate for myself as ‘Shut up and get on with it.’” — Helen Simpson
75. “I’ve been writing since I was six. It is a compulsion, so I can’t really say where the desire came from; I’ve always had it. My breakthrough with the first book came through persistence, because a lot of publishers turned it down.” — J.K. Rowling
76. “Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as a writer.” — Ray Bradbury
77. “It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything.” — Virginia Woolf
78. “A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” — Richard Bach

“Write drunk, edit sober” might be one of the most famous writing quotes about editing, but we can’t all outdrink Ernest Hemingway. Which is why these other words of wisdom and writing quotes exist!

79. “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” ― Jodi Picoult

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80. “When your story is ready for a rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.” — Stephen King
81. “The best advice on writing was given to me by my first editor, Michael Korda, of Simon and Schuster, while writing my first book. 'Finish your first draft and then we'll talk,' he said. It took me a long time to realize how good the advice was. Even if you write it wrong, write and finish your first draft. Only then, when you have a flawed whole, do you know what you have to fix.” — Dominick Dunne
82. “Editing might be a bloody trade, but knives aren’t the exclusive property of butchers. Surgeons use them too.” — Blake Morrison
83. “The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.” — E.B. White
84. “You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you, and we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.” — Arthur Plotnik
85. “Half my life is an act of revision.” — John Irving
86. “I'm all for the scissors. I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.” — Truman Capote
87. “It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.” — C. J. Cherryh
88. “I've found the best way to revise your own work is to pretend that somebody else wrote it and then to rip the living shit out of it.” ― Don Roff
89. “Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial 'we'.” — Mark Twain
90. “So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.” ― Dr. Seuss
91. “Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.” — Henry David Thoreau
92. “I would write a book, or a short story, at least three times — once to understand it, the second time to improve the prose, and a third to compel it to say what it still must say. Somewhere I put it this way: first drafts are for learning what one's fiction wants him to say. Revision works with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to reform it. Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.” — Bernard Malamud
93. “No author dislikes to be edited as much as he dislikes not to be published.” — Russell Lynes
94. “Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.” — Annie Dillard
95. “No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft.” — H.G. Wells

writing quotes-6

96. “A writer is a world trapped in a person.” — Victor Hugo
97. “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” — Thomas Mann
98. “People say, ‘What advice do you have for people who want to be writers?’ I say, they don’t really need advice, they know they want to be writers, and they’re gonna do it. Those people who know that they really want to do this and are cut out for it, they know it.” — R.L. Stine
99. “As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand.” ― Ernest Hemingway
100. “I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.” — Gustave Flaubert
101. “Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences.” — Sylvia Plath
102. “I go out to my little office, where I’ve got a manuscript, and the last page I was happy with is on top. I read that, and it’s like getting on a taxiway. I’m able to go through and revise it and put myself — click — back into that world.” — Stephen King
103. “I think all writing is a disease. You can’t stop it.” — William Carlos Williams
104. “Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. I have 10 or so, and that’s a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.” — Gore Vidal
105. “For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word.” — Catherine Drinker Bowen
106. “The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.” — Thomas Mann
107. “Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.” — T.S. Eliot
108. “Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing.” — Margaret Chittenden
109. “A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.” — Eugene Ionesco
110. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin
111. “A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.” — Roald Dahl
112. “Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.” — Gloria Steinem

From cavemen to our modern day in the 21st-century, we have written our joys and sorrows throughout history. What compels us to write? Here’s what some of the most beloved writers we know have to say.

113. “I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” — Anne Frank
114. “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” — Anais Nin
115. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ― Maya Angelou
116. “The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.” — Zadie Smith
117. “The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone’s neurosis.” — William Styron
118. “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.” — Robin Williams
119. “Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they'll go through anything. You read and you're pierced.” — Aldous Huxley
120. “You can make anything by writing.” — C.S. Lewis
121. “Writers live twice.” —  Natalie Goldberg
122. “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.” — Winston Churchill
123. “Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.” — Oscar Wilde
124. “You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” — Ray Bradbury

writing quotes-5

125. “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass .” ― Anton Chekhov
126. “My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.” — Anton Chekhov
127. “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” — Somerset Maugham
128. “Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.” — Stephen King
129. “Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” — Mark Twain
130. “Find your best time of the day for writing and write. Don’t let anything else interfere. Afterwards it won’t matter to you that the kitchen is a mess.” — Esther Freud
131. “Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. [...] All they do is show you've been to college.” — Kurt Vonnegut
132. “To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.” — Herman Melville
133. “Write drunk, edit sober.” — Ernest Hemingway
134. “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” — Mark Twain
135. “The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.” — Neil Gaiman
136. “Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.” — Jane Yolen
137. “Style means the right word. The rest matters little.” — Jules Renard
138. “My aim in constructing sentences is to make the sentence utterly easy to understand, writing what I call transparent prose. I’ve failed dreadfully if you have to read a sentence twice to figure out what I meant.” — Ken Follett
139. “And one of [the things you learn as you get older] is, you really need less… My model for this is late Beethoven. He moves so strangely and quite suddenly sometimes from place to place in his music, in the late quartets. He knows where he’s going and he just doesn’t want to waste all that time getting there… One is aware of this as one gets older. You can’t waste time.” — Ursula K. Le Guin
140. “ Part 1. I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English — it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in . Part 2. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them – then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. Part 3. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.” — Mark Twain

“You miss 100% of the shots that you never take — Wayne Gretsky,” as Michael Scott once said. In tribute to this sentiment, these writing quotes help show why it’s important not to let failure or rejection get you down.

141. “You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.” — John Wooden
142. “Rejection slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil — but there is no way around them.” — Isaac Asimov
143. “Was I bitter? Absolutely. Hurt? You bet your sweet ass I was hurt. Who doesn’t feel a part of their heart break at rejection. You ask yourself every question you can think of, what, why, how come, and then your sadness turns to anger. That’s my favorite part. It drives me, feeds me, and makes one hell of a story.” — Jennifer Salaiz
144. “I love my rejection slips. They show me I try.” — Sylvia Plath
145. “I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent, he would be wise to develop a thick hide.” — Harper Lee
147. “I used to save all my rejection slips because I told myself, one day I’m going to autograph these and auction them. And then I lost the box.” — James Lee Burke
148. “This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don’t consider it rejected. Consider that you’ve addressed it ‘to the editor who can appreciate my work’ and it has simply come back stamped ‘Not at this address’. Just keep looking for the right address.” — Barbara Kingsolver
149. “To ward off a feeling of failure, she joked that she could wallpaper her bathroom with rejection slips, which she chose not to see as messages to stop, but rather as tickets to the game.” — Anita Shreve
150. “Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.” — Neil Gaiman
151. “The artist doesn’t have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don’t have the time to read reviews.” — William Faulkner
152. “I think that you have to believe in your destiny; that you will succeed, you will meet a lot of rejection and it is not always a straight path, there will be detours — so enjoy the view.” — Michael York
153. “I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.” — Erica Jong
154. “I tell writers to keep reading, reading, reading. Read widely and deeply. And I tell them not to give up even after getting rejection letters. And only write what you love.” — Anita Diamant
155. “I could write an entertaining novel about rejection slips, but I fear it would be overly long.” — Louise Brown
156. “I had immediate success in the sense that I sold something right off the bat. I thought it was going to be a piece of cake and it really wasn’t. I have drawers full of — or I did have — drawers full of rejection slips.” — Fred Saberhagen
157. “An absolutely necessary part of a writer’s equipment, almost as necessary as talent, is the ability to stand up under punishment, both the punishment the world hands out and the punishment he inflicts upon himself.” — Irwin Shaw
158. “Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” — C. S. Lewis

Why does writing matter? If there’s anyone who might know the answer, it’s the people who write — and continue to write, despite adverse circumstances. Here are a few pennies for their thoughts.

159. “Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” — Virginia Woolf
160. “If the book is true, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.” — Wally Lamb
161. “A word after a word after a word is power.” — Margaret Atwood
162. “If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.” — Martin Luther
163. “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” — Albert Camus
164. “Good fiction’s job is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” — David Foster Wallace
165. “After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” — Philip Pullman
166. “All stories have to at least try to explain some small portion of the meaning of life.” — Gene Weingarten
167. “If a nation loses its storytellers, it loses its childhood.” — Peter Handke
168. “The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.” — Tom Clancy
169. “If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don’t listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.” — Lillian Hellman
170. “Don’t take anyone’s writing advice too seriously.” — Lev Grossman

Of course, writing quotes by themselves won't write the book for you — you alone have that power. However, we hope that this post has helped inspire you in some way! If you're looking for more in-depth resources, you can check out these guides:

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Have a favorite quote that we missed? If you know of more cool quotes by writers, write them in the comments!

2 responses

Brian Welte says:

08/05/2019 – 12:28

Here's a quote I absolutely adore: "The author, in his work, must be like God in the Universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere" [Quote from Gustave Flaubert]

Comments are currently closed.

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How To Write A Resume

How to write a resume

Writing a resume involves using the proper formatting, writing an introduction, and adding your work experience and education. Stuffing your entire professional life into a single page resume can feel overwhelming, but remember that you’re distilling the relevant parts of your professional experience in order to catch the eye of the recruiter .

Formatting your resume. To start, use a word processor such as Microsoft Word or Google docs. Standard resume formatting calls for:

1 inch margins

10-12 point font

A professional, commonly-used font

Additionally, there are three resume formats that are commonly used. Most people should stick with a chronological resume format , but the combination resume format and functional resume format can be effective for more advanced workers or those who have significant gaps in their resume.

Write a resume header . It doesn’t matter if you have the best resume in the world if the hiring manager can’t contact you. Every single resume should include the following contact information:

Your full name. First and last.

Your phone number. Use a personal phone number, and make sure your voicemail is set up properly.

Your email address. Nothing inappropriate — [email protected] is a safe choice.

Location. City, State, Zip Code is fine, but you can include your full mailing address if you think it’s appropriate.

Your social media (optional). LinkedIn is the obvious one you’d want to include, but make sure your profile looks good. If you have an online portfolio , either on a personal blog/website or on a site like Journo Portfolio , feel free to include that here as well.

Your job title. Also optional, but can be useful for applicant tracking systems.

Resume introduction. You have four options for your resume introduction: a resume objective, summary statement, resume profile, or qualifications summary. For most job-seekers, a resume summary statement is the best choice. Regardless of which resume introduction you choose, avoid first-person pronouns (I/me/my).

Resume objective. A resume objective is the goal of your resume. Since the objective of every resume is to land a job, this is not the most original or impressive opener you can have.

On the other hand, it’s a good choice for an entry-level applicant or someone who is changing career paths . This should be a 1-3 sentence summary of why you’re motivated to get the position you’re applying for.

Who should use a resume objective: Entry-level applicants, career-changers, and recent college graduates.

Resume summary. This is the best opener for most job-seekers. As the name suggests, a resume summary highlights the most salient aspects of your resume.

It should include your current position, how many years of experience you have, some of your biggest achievements, and possibly your career goals. This should be a 1-3 sentence spiel and should include some quantifiable experiences.

Who should use a resume summary: Most job seekers; anyone with quantifiable accomplishments to emphasize and a broad range of skills.

Qualifications summary. A bullet point list (4-6 points is the sweet spot) of your qualifications for the position. It’s best used by applicants going for jobs that require a fixed skill set. It’s not a great choice for entry-level applicants who lack quantifiable achievements.

You’ll notice that a qualifications summary takes up more space than a resume objective or summary, but it can actually save the hiring manager time if you provide a bunch of valuable information right off the top.

Who should use a qualifications summary: Those applying to a job with requirements for certain skills and job-seekers who have a lot of experience in their industry and/or field.

Resume profile. A resume profile is similar to a resume summary, but goes into more detail about your accomplishments at your current or former job, while also telling the reader about your career goals. Think of a resume profile as a section that pulls all the best parts of your work experience section into one place.

Who should use a resume profile: Anyone with significant accomplishments under their belt, expertise in a niche field, or applying to a job in the same industry that they have lots of experience in.

Resume headline. Resume headlines aren’t necessary, but you can include one alongside any of the four types of resume introduction listed above. A resume headline comes between your contact information and the resume introduction of your choice.

Headlines can be used by entry-level applicants and experienced job-seekers alike. The important point is that your headline should be short and to the point. Additionally, you should use title case when writing your resume headline (capitalize words as you would for a book title).

Who should use a resume headline: Any job-seeker who wants to showcase their experience or unique value right off the bat.

Work experience. Your work experience section is the place to let hiring managers know that you have relevant experience that would allow you to handle the job you’re applying for.

If you’re using the chronological resume format, your work experience section would come after your resume summary/objective. In a funcitonal reumse, it would follow your skills section. Either way, work experience should be listed in reverse-chronological order (most recent experience at the top).

When listing your work experience, you should include all of the following information:

Job title. Start by stating the position you held at the company. These are easy cue for the hiring manager to look at and determine whether your past positions would help you succeed at their company.

Company Info. Include the name of the employer, the location where you worked, and perhaps a brief description of the company, if it isn’t a well-known name.

Dates Employed: Use the mm/yyyy format if you want to be sure that most applicant tracking systems (ATS) will pick it up. Whatever format you use for dates, be consistent, or your resume will look sloppy.

Job Description. Don’t just list your job’s responsibilities; hiring managers and recruiters already have an idea of your duties based on the job title. Instead, list your most important and impressive responsibilities/achievements at the job with bullet points. Determine which of these are most relevant for your new role based on the job description.

Ideally, each bullet should be no longer than a single line. However, two lines is acceptable, if used sparingly.

Always start with a strong action verb, followed by a quantifiable achievement and a specific duty. For example: “Developed ad campaigns for clients, increasing sales by an average of 27%.” Each job title should include 3-5 bullet points.

The order that you include this information can be changed around, as long as you are consistent throughout your resume. However, the bullet points detailing your job’s achievements should always be the last item for each entry.

It’s important that you tailor your resume’s work experience section to the job you’re applying for. We recommend reading the job description carefully and highlighting the action verbs in one color and the skills, adjectives, and job-specific nouns in a different color.

Educational background. In almost all cases, your education section should come after your professional history. If you’re a recent college graduate with limited work experience, you may choose to put your educational achievements first.

Like the section on your professional history, educational experiences should come in reverse-chronological order, with your highest level of education at the top. If you have a college degree, you don’t need to add any information about your high school experience. If you didn’t finish college, it’s okay to give a list of what credits you did complete.

Each educational experience can be listed in the following format:

Degree/Program Name College/University Name Dates attended

You don’t need to add anything else, especially if your resume is already impressive enough. But if you’re struggling to fill up the page, or you feel that aspects of your educational experience will help make you a standout, you may consider also including:

Minor. If you think it rounds out your not-exactly-relevant-to-the-job major nicely.

GPA. Only if it was 3.5 or higher. Otherwise, it’s not going to do you any favors to include this.

Honors. Dean’s List, Cum Laude, etc.

Achievements. If you wrote a killer thesis/dissertation that showcases intimate knowledge relevant to the job to which you’re applying, you can include its title and a very brief description.

Extracurricular activities. Only include if they’re relevant. For example, if you’re applying for a management position and you were president of your student government.

Certifications/Licenses. If the job you’re applying for requires/likes to see certain certifications or licenses that you have, you may include them in this section as well.

Skills section. Your impressive skills should be scattered logistically throughout your professional history section, but you should also include a section solely dedicated to highlighting your skill set . Skills can be broken down into two categories:

Hard skills are skills you learn through training and indicate expertise with a technical ability or job-specific responsibility.

Soft skills are your personality traits, interpersonal abilities, and intangible qualities that make you more effective at your job.

Your resume should have a healthy mix of hard and soft skills, as both are essential to job performance. However, since soft skills are harder to prove in the context of a resume, we recommend leaning more toward hard skills. Additionally, whenever you list a soft skill, make sure that it has a correlating item in your work experience section.

For example, if you say you are skilled in collaboration, you should mention a time when a team project was a major success somewhere in your work experience section.

Optional sections. If you still have space left or there’s more you want to show off that doesn’t quite fit in any of the above sections, you may consider adding an additional section covering one or more of the below categories:

Language . Being bilingual is always impressive, and can be included on a resume for any company. Highlight this more if your position involves liaising with international distributors and/or clients. Don’t lie about your proficiency level.

It may be best to not mention it if you’re not particularly proficient speaker . Such as if you took courses in school, or haven’t really managed to gain fluency. It can end up looking like an attempt to inflate your credentials, which you want to avoid.

Volunteer experience . Always a good thing to include. It shows you’re a team player who behaves in a way that promotes the greater good, without thought of personal gain. Especially good for entry-level candidates and those applying for jobs at a non-profit. If you have gaps in your work history, you can also consider including volunteer experiences in your work history section instead.

Personal projects. A personal blog, published works, or a portfolio of your past projects are all good things to include. They show you take initiative, enjoy and take pride in your work, and that you can handle the responsibilities of the job, if relevant.

Certifications/licenses. If you didn’t include these in your education section, this is another good place to list relevant certifications or licenses that you have.

Interests . This is largely just a space filler if your resume is light in other areas. However, if your hobbies are directly related to the job that you’re applying for, it’s not a bad idea to include them. And it might draw a recruiter’s attention if you end up sharing some of the same interests as they do.

If you have several seemingly random items that are valuable, but don’t warrant creating a whole separate section for, you can also make a section called “Additional Experience.” Here you can include all of the above categories in one place. Just make sure that each item is clear and easy for readers to understand.

Resume samples

Now that we have a good idea of how to write a resume, let’s take a look at some example resumes:

resume example zippia resume builder

Jack Pilgrim Washington , DC 14015 – (555) 444-3333 – [email protected] – www.linkedin.com/jpilgrim Resume Summary Graphic designer with 3+ years of experience creating and implementing promotional materials and social media graphics. Worked with sales and marketing teams to increase inbound calls by 23% YoY through compelling digital media. Adept at planning, managing, and prioritizing multiple deadlines at once, and thrives in fast-paced work environment. Work Experience Creative Designs | Washington, DC Lead Graphic Designer | June 2018-Present Worked with sales and marketing teams to create landing pages, sales proposals, and supporting media elements to drive sales by over $250,000 per quarter Trained, managed, and mentored team of 4 junior designers to fulfill 40+ project orders on a weekly basis Conducted UX research through surveys, usability testing, and data analysis to plan content marketing strategy, driving organic search traffic by 12% Presented proposals, results, and status updates to set of 4-7 clients, ensuring customer satisfaction at or above 95% for 3 years straight Happy Place | Alexandria, VA Junior Graphic Designer | July 2016-May 2018 Translated client needs and branding strategies into design and content strategy, increasing client retention by 22% Reduced project turnaround time by 8% by Utilizing web-based ticket system for completing and archiving finalized pieces Posted digital artwork to network IPTV using web interface to produce high-end info-graphics and other materials Happy Place | Alexandria, VA Marketing Intern | September 2015-July 2016 Assisted marketing team with data collection, analysis, and presentation using Google Analytics Drew up storyboards for new marketing campaigns alongside sales team, increasing brand awareness through social media Wrote 500-1000 word articles to pair with graphical elements on page, leading to a 40% boost in engagement on company website Education Savannah College of Art and Design | Savannah, Georgia May 2016 Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design Skills Adobe Creative Suite Typography HTML/CSS WordPress Collaboration Organization
Allison Neederly Chicago, Illinois , 60007 | (333) 222-1111 | [email protected] | www.linkedin.com/allison.neederly Resume Summary Dedicated customer service representative with 4+ years experience resolving customers’ needs in-person, online, and over the phone. Top achiever at XYZ Inc. with a 100% customer satisfaction rate for Q1 of 2020. Friendly personable, and knowledgable about company’s products and services. Relevant Skills Customer Service Responded to upwards of 200 customer queries daily with XYZ Inc., reducing the average wait time by 56% and increasing customer satisfaction rates by 13% Ability to resolve conflict and create a positive atmosphere for shopping for both new and existing customers through technical proficiency Expert product knowledge and communication skills, and experience training and mentoring new customer service staff Web Chat and Phone Skilled in 3 web chat platforms for helping online customers resolve their queries quickly and accurately Achieved fastest call resolution rate at XYZ Inc., with an average resolution time of under 5 minutes per customer Performed outbound calls for customer satisfaction surveys, as well as writing web-based surveys for 10,000+ customers Troubleshooting Detailed product knowledge allowed for customer technical issues to be resolved at rate within top 5% of all customer service associates at XYZ Inc. Created manual for step-by-step directions for troubleshooting that was implemented for team of 100+ customer service reps Positive attitude took average tech-related negative response from 1/5 stars to 4/5 stars, increasing trust in brands and services Work Experience XYZ Inc. | Philadelphia, PA Customer Service Associate New Look Global | Burlington, VT Junior Customer Service Representative L.L. Bean | Burlington, VT Sales Associate Education University of Vermont | Burlington, VT May 2012 Bachelor of Arts in Humanities
Priya Laghari New York, NY | (222) 111-0000 | [email protected] | www.priyabizdev.com Resume Profile Strategy Development: Grew John Deere’s international sales by 13% by tapping into undeserved countries in Southeast Asia Management: Oversaw a team of managers representing marketing, sales, and product teams. Streamlined collaborative, cross-functional communications through agile and scrum management system CRM: Developed, customized, and implemented new customer relationship management database for accounts totaling over $10M in value Work Experience Business Development Manager 01/2015-Present Microsoft | Redmond, WA Developed product strategies and roadmap for Google AdWords, increasing inbound traffic by 26% YoY Reduced time training on new software by 50% for new and existing employees by implement e-learning programs Spearheaded digital marketing campaign worth $1M that saw a return of 200% in first year by qualifying leads earlier in the sales funnel Regional Sales Manager 11/2012-01/2015 Big Things Inc. | St. Louis, MO Managed territory encompassing 29 regional locations with an annual revenue of approx. $55M Worked with C-level executives to plan business strategies, resulting in 20% reduction in overhead costs Increased client retention by 12% in first year by implementing a CRM approach based on account profiling and elevating levels of relationship selling Account Manager 02/2009-11/2012 Solutions Corp. | Chicago, IL Implemented and developed CRM strategic plans, increasing retention of long-term clients by 22% Maintained 50+ accounts totaling over $35M in value Generated leads through one-on-one consultation via phone inquiries, online check-ins, and meeting office walk-ins Relevant Skills CRM: Proficient with Salesforce, Zoho, and HubSpot; some experience with Keap. Used various CRM software over a decade to successfully manage customer relations and quick to adapt to new software and tools that aid in quality of customer experience. Salesmanship: Negotiated and closed over several deals worth $1M+ and skilled in upselling and cross-selling. Adept at working closely with marketing and product teams to maximize the efficiency of the sales funnel for both inbound and outbound traffic. Presentation: Represented Microsoft Northwest Region at quarterly board meetings, ensuring all stakeholders were kept abreast of new developments and opportunities. Also deliver monthly presentations to big clients and vendors to maintain positive relationship. Data analytics. Expert at integrating data from various analytics platforms, including Google, Microsoft Power BI, and SAP BusinessObjects Education Colgate University | May 2008 MBA Fordham University | May 2006 Bachelor’s Degree in Business

For more resume examples and templates:

Resume examples by job

Google docs resume template

Resume templates

Resume builder

Resume Headers Samples:

header-1

Tip : Never put your contact info in the header of your document; some applicant tracking systems might miss it.

For more on how to write a resume header:

Resume Header

Resume Titles

Resume introduction examples

Entry-Level Resume Objective.

Recent graduate with a bachelor’s in Marketing from the University of Virginia seeking an entry-level role in content marketing. Excellent copywriter with 2+ years experience editing content as a member of the UVa Writing Center.

Career Change Resume Objective.

Eager to apply 7+ years of experience with customer success management to make successful outbound B2B calls, deliver customized business solutions to new and existing customers, and provide expert product knowledge in the role of Account Manager for XYZ Inc.

Example Resume Summary Statement.

Accountant with over 8 years of experience in the medical industry. Adept at advising on management of cash deficits, reconciling departmental accounts, and creating new accounts and codes. Coordinated invoice preparation system for ABC that reduced contractor overhead by 19% YoY.
English teacher with a love of language and 6 years of experience teaching high school students. Developed new curriculum that boosted freshman reading comprehension scores by 12% and created after school book club for AP Lit class, resulting in 100% of participating students achieving a 5 on the AP Lit test.

Example Qualifications Summary.

Executive assistant with 5+ years experience helping maintain efficiency in an office of 25 employees Communicated directly with internal and external stakeholders, helping Senior Vice President manage projects worth $5M+ Proactively managed office schedules, identifying and prioritizing changes to ensure client satisfaction Recognized in a company of 500 for “Outstanding Achiever” in May 2019

Example Resume Profile.

Detail-oriented IT Specialist with 4 years of experience overseeing and improving the infrastructure of IT systems. Adept at building and running troubleshooting systems and testing services. Decreased security risk by 47% through continual optimization, while also improving the speed of client portal by 22%. Excellent communicator both internally and for client-facing discussions. Achieved 98%+ customer satisfaction ratings through weekly and monthly check-ins with accounts valued cumulatively at $500,000.

Entry-Level Resume Headline.

Bilingual College Graduate with 80 WPM Typing Speed and Tutoring Experience

Experienced Resume Headline.

Business Development Specialist with 6+ Years Experience Scaling Start-Up Tech Teams

For more on resume introductions:

Resume objective statement

Resume summary statement

Resume summary statement examples

Qualifications summary

Sample resume work experience sections

sample resume work experience section

Work Experience XYZ Industries | Seattle, WA Marketing Associate | May 2019-Present Delivered weekly presentations to client-base to communicate brand messaging, increasing client retention by 11% Served as liaison between marketing and product teams, resulting in projects finishing 2 weeks early, on average Leveraged Excel skills to create and maintain spreadsheet to track consumer insights, emergent trends, and inform decisions of marketing team through competitive analysis Managed team of 5 contractors to juggle multiple priority projects simultaneously, never missing a deadline Initiated an affiliate referral program that PR team went on to turn into a revenue-generating stream valued at $30,000 annually ABC Corp | Seattle, WA Marketing Intern | September 2018-May 2019 Developed, maintained, and processed 20+ digital consent forms and distributor forms Worked collaboratively with a team of 10 marketing professionals, closely aligning our goals with the PR team Provided data analysis using Google Analytics and performed keyword research to increase blog traffic by 56% over six months Answered up to 50 customer queries by phone and email each week

For more on building the perfect resume work experience section:

Resume work experience section

First resume (no experience)

Examples Of Education Resume Sections

Graduated recently from a 4-year program.

Western Illinois University | Macomb, Illinois May 2020 Bachelor of Arts in Sociology | Minor in Psychology 3.95 GPA magna cum laude Dean’s List all semesters

Two degrees.

Fordham University | Bronx, New York April 2016 Master of Chemical Engineering Stony Brook University | Stony Brook, New York April 2014 Bachelor of Science in Chemistry

Anticipated graduation date (not yet graduated).

DePaul Univeristy | Chicago, Illinois Bachelor of Arts in History – Degree anticipated May 2021 Current GPA: 3.8

Older job seeker (graduated 10+ years ago).

University of Chicago | Chicago, Illinois Bachelor of Business Administration

High school graduate (no college degree).

Johnston High School 2016-2020 Head of Computer Club

More on crafting the perfect resume education section:

Education resume section

GPA on resume

Dean’s list

Magna cum laude

Examples Of Skills For Resume

Examples of hard skills include:

Examples of soft skills include:

Here’s more information on how to incorporate skills into your resume:

Resume skills section

Hard skills

Soft skills

Top skills for professionals

Skills-based resume

Resume writing FAQ

What is a resume?

A resume is a one to two-page document that focuses on professional experience, past achievements, education and certifications, and specific skills tailored to the job you’re applying for.

Almost every job application requires a resume, and hiring managers use them as a first impression in determining which applicants get a shot at an interview.

Whether you’re fresh out of college or have 30 years of professional experience, this guide should help craft a resume that stands out from the crowd and get you one step closer to landing your dream job.

What is the format for writing a good resume?

Most people will want to use a chronological or reverse-chronological resume format. This format is compatible with most applicant tracking systems (ATS) and is easy for employers to read. Additionally it helps highlight your experience, which helps prove your qualifications.

How far back should a resume go?

A resume should go back no further than 10 to 15 years. However, it is important that all your information is relevant. Therefore, do not include job experience that is irrelevant to your application, even if it’s fewer than 10 years old. Save that information for later discussions.

Should you personalize your resume for each job?

Yes, you should personalize your resume for each job you apply to. Many recruiters use ATS now, which will search for keywords in a resume and reject those that don’t have them. That means that the skills you choose to highlight as well as your opening, such as your resume summary, should be altered to suit each job you apply to.

You don’t need to rewrite the entire resume for each job, but it does show attention to detail and initiative to make sure that your resume is customized. It also makes it more likely that you’ll get past the first step of the process.

State of New York Department of Labor – Resumes, Cover Letters and Job Applications

Harvard University – Create a Resume/CV or Cover Letter

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Matthew Zane is the lead editor of Zippia's How To Get A Job Guides. He is a teacher, writer, and world-traveler that wants to help people at every stage of the career life cycle. He completed his masters in American Literature from Trinity College Dublin and BA in English from the University of Connecticut.

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The 10 Best Pirates of the Caribbean Movie Quotes, Ranked

Quote up, me hearties, yo ho.

Among its iconic characters, epic scores, Oscar nominations, and revitalization of the adventure genre , the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise produced some of the most quotable lines in modern cinema. The five-movie series starred a core cast of Johnny Depp , Orlando Bloom , Keira Knightley , and Geoffrey Rush as pirates charting the high seas fighting cursed sea creatures, the colonizing British authority, and each other. Fan favorites and considered the only worthwhile installments, Gore Verbinski 's first three movies— The Curse of the Black Pearl , Dead Man's Chest , and At World's End —were groundbreaking for Disney's live-action resume.

The fourth and fifth films— On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales —failed to live up to the precedent set by the original trilogy , not only with audiences but with critics. Alas, writers Ted Elliott , Terry Rossio , and Stuart Beattie crafted compelling, quotable characters that pop culture, movie buffs, and franchise fans still quote today. The writing, paired with skilled and sometimes improvised performances from the cast, delivered iconic lines from "I've got a jar of dirt" to "It's just good business," that contribute to the series' rich legacy.

10 "You actually were telling the truth."

James norrington (jack davenport) - 'pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest' (2006).

A complete 180-degree shift from the Royal Navy Commodore James Norrington's ( Jack Davenport ) return in Dead Man's Chest as a fallen-from-grace drunkard provided audiences with one of pop culture's favorite memes. After hitching a ride with Jack (Depp) and Elizabeth (Knightley) aboard the Black Pearl to the Isla Cruces, the trio discovers the legendary buried heart of Davy Jones ( Bill Nighy ). To everyone's surprise, Jack wasn't scheming—well, partially—when he led the crew to the sandy beach to retrieve the chest.

Jack's response is, well, very Jack-like and completely accurate. He does tell the truth; however, it's hard to tell where in his long-winded ramblings the truth lies. His fellow pirates (and audiences) learned to take his words with a grain of salt while also searching for hidden meanings and misdirection. The two-way quote became a fan-favorite meme template that still makes its rounds on social media almost two decades after the movie premiered.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

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9 "Do you fear death?"

Davy jones (bill nighy) - 'pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest' (2006).

The legendary sea creature antagonist, Davy Jones , struck fear into those onscreen and off-screen. After Jack tricks Will (Bloom) into believing the Flying Dutchman has been shipwrecked, Will boards the remains of the debilitated vessel only to realize he's been sold into servitude to repay Jack's debt to Jones. An ominous presence until he graces the screen, Jones's first line, uttered as a match flame illuminates his face, sends goosebumps radiating across everyone within earshot.

His follow-up question is just as petrifying. The crew members of Dutchman are men who were either manipulated into servitude in exchange for mercy or forcibly sent to him to settle debts. As part of his elevator pitch to survivors of the Kraken's havoc, Jones asks sailors two very simple but important questions. Men who agree to join his crew fear death and the darkness of the sea, electing 100 brutal years aboard the Dutchman over the watery grave they eluded during a Kraken attack. From page to delivery, this Davy Jones quote is one of the best in the franchise and one of the best introductions to a cinematic villain .

8 "The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do."

Jack sparrow (johnny depp) - 'pirates of the caribbean: the curse of the black pearl' (2003).

Right from the start, audiences knew Jack Sparrow would be one of the best-written characters in the Disney canon. His long and convoluted, tongue-twisting, enigma-riddled quotes are not only laughable but also thought-provoking. In The Curse of the Black Pearl , audiences are on the fence about whether Jack is a hero, a villain, or somewhere in between. As he teaches straight-laced Will the ways of piracy, Jack explains the two rules that really matter in life and the high seas .

He follows up with an example: "For instance, you can accept that your father was a pirate and a good man, or you can't. But pirate is in your blood, boy, so you'll have to square with that someday." It's the perfect foreshadowing piece of wisdom of what would come for Will's character in the first and succeeding films. These rules of engagement are threaded throughout the franchise of what each character can do and can't do when it comes to where that moral and what-you-desire-most compass pointed.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

7 "you have to be lost to find a place that can't be found, elseways everyone would know where it was.", hector barbossa (geoffrey rush) - 'pirates of the caribbean: at world's end' (2007).

At World's End marked a huge turn for the franchise with the return of Barbossa (Rush) following the cliffhanger in the second film with Jack's banishment to Davy Jones' locker. Barbossa's presence in At World's End is crucial, as the crew lacks an experienced captain to lead them. Without Jack or the Black Pearl, the core characters are surrounded by a sense of loss and misdirection, something Barbossa's wisdom and chaos bring full circle.

The journey to the world's end gets them good and lost, which inspires Barbossa's mood, but he panics the crew as he delivers one of his character's best lines. In a world where direction and charting the right course is the difference between life and death, being lost is the absolute worst place to be; however, here, that narrative is flipped. This line makes absolutely no sense and perfect sense all at the same time , which is the beauty in the delivery and writing. It's also one of the many thought-provoking quotes from the franchise that has a greater meaning when applied off-screen.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

6 "no cause is lost if there is but one fool left to fight for it.", will turner (orlando bloom) - 'pirates of the caribbean: at world's end' (2007).

The ominous presence of Will's father was palpable in the first film, making Bootstrap Bill's ( Stellan Skarsgård ) introduction in the second all the more showstopping. By the third film, it's obvious Bootstrap is losing his mind, taking one step closer to insanity than freedom, as Elizabeth witnessed firsthand aboard the Flying Dutchman. Mirroring a loved one with memory loss, Elizabeth tries to protect Will's expectations in his quest to free Bootstrap from Jones' servitude.

Their argument about what is and is not worth pursuing further drives a wedge in their tumultuous relationship. Will's best quote of the series sums up the heart of his character . In each of his toughest moments, he keeps fighting for every cause important to him. From chasing down Elizabeth's captors in the first film to securing their freedom with Beckett in the second and saving his father in the third, Will never wavers in his dedication. The Pirates movies are very rewatchable , and it's largely thanks to Will's unshakable idealism that makes him a compelling hero who's easy to root for.

5 "Not all treasure's silver and gold, mate."

It never ceases to surprise just how insightful the bumbling, morally ambiguous hero of this franchise is. Perhaps it's his life experience across the treacherous seas or the temptations of Tortuga, but either way, Jack's epic timing to mic-drop provocative wisdom is unmatched. The Curse of the Black Pearl is centered around the pursuit of treasure; the Aztec gold as the root of the pirate's curse signifies the lesson Jack learned without succumbing to the curse.

Jack's quote also holds a double meaning. Will is clearly not obsessed with the monetary and tangible aspect of what lies within Isla de Muerta, but as Jack alludes, treasure is in the eye of the beholder. For Will, his treasure is Elizabeth, someone he is deeply attached to and obsessed with ensuring her safety. This quote is just another example of Jack's ability to read people and how they play into his master plan and grand scheme.

4 "Every man has a price he will willingly accept even for what he hoped never to sell."

Cutler beckett (tom hollander) - 'pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest' (2006).

Lord Cutler Beckett ( Tom Hollander ) is one of the best villains in Pirates of the Caribbean , a downright diabolical man with no redeeming qualities. His introduction in Dead Man's Chest set the tone perfectly, introducing him as a worthy adversary in the game of chess against piracy. Beckett pits Will and Elizabeth against Jack while simultaneously wreaking havoc on the trust in Will and Elizabeth's relationship.

This line flew under the radar but is such a masterful exposition in this franchise's world , where the price for each character changes from film to film. In one of the best quotes of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Beckett packs a punch that serves as an overarching theme for the evolution of several key characters while also paralleling the colonizing world they live in.

3 "Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest."

In a beautifully blended recipe of page-to-screen character development, Jack Sparrow is just as skilled with his words as he is with a sword, and his seemingly ridiculous tangents are quite disarming. Moments before the final battle in The Curse of the Black Pearl , Jack is pilfering the gold of Isla de Muerta, having convinced Barbossa to wait before killing Will and breaking the curse. Once again, he redirects, drawing his linguistic weapon to distract his adversary just enough to catch him off-guard.

The delivery of this line kicked off one of the most epic battles in the pirate genre , paired with an incredible movie score to create pure perfection. The quote made audiences double-take but for all the right reasons. It's a slippery slope but absolutely worth the payoff for Jack's accurate self-description. Honesty and deception would be monumental themes in subsequent themes, not only for Jac but for other major character arcs as well.

2 "By the sweat of our brows, and the strength of our backs, and the courage of our hearts! Gentlemen, hoist the colors!"

Elizabeth swann (keira knightley) - 'pirates of the caribbean: at world's end' (2007).

One of the most underrated quotes, but the best of the original trilogy, Elizabeth's first line of her epic third-act speech set the tone for the battle that should've ended the series. In At World's End, as the Brethren Court faces off against the East India Trading Company's armada led by the Flying Dutchman, all hope seems lost. Elizabeth, newly crowned Pirate King, delivers a war cry that channeled fear into courage and pirate pride one last time.

With the freedom of the sea on the line, the crew of the Black Pearl realizes just what they are willing to die for. Piracy, while a criminal enterprise, is the expression of freedom, something worth dying for as the world around them evolves. This rally and declaration of war solidified the arc of Elizabeth's character , no longer a dainty debutant but rather a Pirate King ready to die for the freedom of the sea. The impassionate speech is one of the many reasons why the third movie is the best in this trilogy and a wonderful showcase for Knightley's acting.

1 "Why is the rum gone?"

Jack sparrow (johnny depp) - 'pirates of the caribbean: the curse of the back pearl' (2003).

On the surface level, this is not the most thought-provoking, expertly-written dialogue, but it is the most quoted line of not only the franchise but the iconic character. Following their banishment to a remote island, Jack and Elizabeth spend an evening relishing the pirate's life of sandy beaches and a few good bottles of rum—or so Jack thinks. Waking up hungover to flames billowing high and the rum cache torched, Jack delivers the most famous line that would carry with him throughout the remainder of the series.

Yes, it's a quick exasperation from a questionable pirate who indulges too much in the drink, but Jack's devastation goes a little deeper. Later in the series, Jack asks, "Why is the rum always gone?" Just when he thinks he's found relief from the chaos and carnage of sword fighting, curses, the law, and more, Jack's almost always disappointed, except in a few instances. Surprisingly, audiences can relate to the feeling, empathizing with Jack's letdown by thinking of their replications and versions of real-life "rum."

NEXT: The 10 Best Jedi Quotes in Star Wars, Ranked

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