I stumbled across a quote from Napoleon Bonaparte recently and despite the passage of time it seemed pretty familiar. So I dug a bit deeper into history and found a few more that I reckon are pretty relevant to anyone who has endured the highs and lows of life in a creative agency. Here are my Top 10:

1. History is a set of lies agreed upon.

If you replace ‘history’ with ‘brand guidelines’, and ‘lies’ with ‘compromises’…

2. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

Account service plays a similar intermediary role between clients and creatives.

3. Imagination rules the world.

Who in this industry could argue with that sentiment?

4. A picture is worth a thousand words.

As above (with apologies to the copywriters).

5. Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.

Hmmm…who takes credit for your great ideas?

6. Victory belongs to the most persevering.

True of many a pitch!

7. A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.

Could the same be said of retainers – or contracts?

8. Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.

Pretty much sums up the relationship between a project’s creative process and the proximity of its deadline.

9. It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.

And the brief doth maketh the creative’s legacy.

10. We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him.

Particularly so if that man is a creative receiving feedback.

Bryce Michelmore is an Account Manager at Wellmark.

Credit to http://www.brainyquote.com for the quotes used in this blog.