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Quotations on storytelling - what the sages say about stories

Storytelling and language
Language is an oral phenomenon.
         Walter Ong, The Orality of Language, page 6.

In all the wonderful worlds that writing opens, the spoken word still resides and lives. Written texts all have to related somehow, directly or indirectly to the world of sound, the natural habitat of language, to yield their meanings. "Reading a text" means converting it to sound, aloud or in the imagination, syllable-by-syllable in slow reading or sketchily in the rapid reading common to high technology cultures.
         Walter Ong, The Orality of Language, page 8.


Transfer of values through storytelling

This story shall the good man teach his son;
      King Henry V, IV, iii, 35 see full excerpt

With weeping and with laughter, 
   Still is the story told,
How well Horatius kept the bridge 
   In the brave days of old.
        Lord Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome, Horatius lxx

I love to hear the story
That angel voices tell.
        Mrs Emily Miller, The Little Corporal, I Love to Hear

Transfer of meaning and knowledge through stories
                                    But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze they young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
And each particular hair to stand an end,
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
       William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Hamlet, Act I, scene v

                       Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me.
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.
          William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Hamlet, Act V, Scene ii

For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
         William Shakespeare (1564-1616) King Richard II, (Act III, scene ii)

And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe, 
And then from hour to hour, we rot and rot; 
And thereby hangs a tale.
          William Shakespeare (1564-1616) As You Like it, (Act II, scene ii)

           Yet by your gracious patience,
I will a round unvarnished tale deliver.
          William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Othello (Act I, scene iii)

            A sad tale's best for winter.
I have one of sprites and goblins.
           William Shakespeare (1564-1616) A Winter's Tale (Act II, scene i)

But that's another story.
         Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) Tristram Shandy, book i chapter 1

Said my mother, "What is all this story about?"
"A Cock and Bull," said Yorick.
        Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) Tristram Shandy, book ix chapter 33

Young man, there is America - which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men, and uncouth manners; yet shall, before you taste of death, show itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world.
     Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Speech: Conciliation with America: March 1775

Dead men tell no tales.
      Carolyn Wells.

I cannot tell how the truth may be;
I say the tale as 'twas said to me
           Sir Walter Scott

Performing a story
Soft as some song divine, your story flows.
           Homer

He always cuts to the chase, and hurries his readers into the midst of the story as they knew it before. 
           Horace, Ars Poetica, 148.

He cometh unto you with a tale that holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner.
            Sir Philip Sidney

RICHARD.       Be eloquent in my behalf to her.
ELIZABETH.    An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.
RICHARD.       Then plainly to her tell my loving tale.
             William Shakespeare, Richard III, (Act IV, scene iv)

A story should to please, at least seem true,
Be apropos, well told, concise and new.
           Stillingfleet

Lend freshness to a twice-told tale
              Lord Byron, Hints from Horace, 1, 184


The impact of storytelling

                                          My story being done, 
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs,
She swore, in faith, 'twas strange, twas passing strange,
'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful.
             William Shakespeare, Othello, Act I, Scene iii, 158. 
                      see full excerpt
Life as a story
Even such is time, which takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, and all we have, 
And pays us but with age and dust, 
Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days...
          Sir Walter Ralegh (1552-1618) written on the night before his exeuction

Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stired the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale.
         Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) Message to the Public

Miscellaneous
For when You are angry, 
all our days are gone:
we bring our years to an end, 
as it were tale that is told.
              Bible, Psalms, x

“Steve Denning is the Warren Buffett of business communication. He sees things others don't and is able to explain them so the rest of us can understand.” Chip Heath, co-author of Made to Stick. “This book offers a genuinely refreshing perspective and an uncommon insight into the narrative life of leadership. I highly recommend you get it today and read it tonight. Tomorrow will be an entirely different kind of day if you do.” Jim Kouzes. Co-author of The Leadership Challenge

The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art & Discipline of Business Narrative
A book by Steve Denning (Jossey-Bass, 2005)

Squirrel Inc: A Fable of Leadership Through Storytelling, 
A book by Steve Denning (Jossey-Bass, June 2004)

Storytelling in Organizations
a book by Steve Denning with John Seely Brown,
Larry Prusak & Katalina Groh (Elsevier, June 2004)

The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations 
a book by Steve Denning (Butterworth Heinemann, 2000)

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Steve Denning consults and gives workshops and keynote presentations on topics that include: leadership, innovation, organizational storytelling, business storytelling, springboard storytelling, knowledge management, branding, marketing, values, communication, communities of practice, business performance, collective intelligence, tacit knowledge, business collaboration, knowledge, learning, community, performance improvement, visionary leadership, social potential, institutional community building, and internal communications. You can contact Steve at steve@stevedenning.com

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