Inspirational Museum Quotes for 2014

Enough New Year reflective nonsense for the time being. Reading some motivational quotes for New Year* I have been inspired to inspire you to greater efforts in 2014 by sharing the wisdom of great thinkers throughout the centuries. Had any of them been museum managers this is what they would have said:

"An artefact cannot be polished without friction, nor a curator perfected without excellent accreditation documents." Seneca

"Don't go around saying the heritage sector owes you a living. The heritage sector owes you nothing. It was here first." Mark Twain

"Enthusiasm, backed up by nonsense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for a museum." Dale Carnegie

"It doesn't matter whether the Dow is 5000 or 50,000. If you're an idiot, there is no bad time to start a museum." Guy Kawasaki

"Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when the museum visitor seems most challenging." Joseph Campbell

"The problem with many a museum is that it takes away the requirement to set your own visitor route, to explore your own learning, to find your story." Seth Godin

"You are your museum's greatest asset. Put your time, effort and money into training, grooming, and encouraging your greatest asset." Tom Hopkins

"It is only necessary to have storage, for artefacts without storage facilities are useless." Casanova

"If money is your hope for survival you will never have it. The only real security that a museum will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability." Henry Ford

"Museums that are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their objects." Andrew Carnegie

"If you have no confidence in your collection, you are twice defeated in the race for visitors. With confidence, you have great exhibitions even before you have started." Cicero

"It is not the strongest of the museums that survive, nor the most intelligent of staff that survives the cuts. It is the ones that are the most adaptable to change." Charles Darwin

*All quotes gleefully ripped off and improved from Inc. on-line magazine. 

If you want to read the actual quotes they can be found here. http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/12-great-motivational-quotes-for-2014.html