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Literature's greatest closing paragraphs - best book endings of all time

Brilliant endings that will stay with you.

Writing the opening lines of a book is easy. Not that we’ve done it or anything. But just think of all the words that exist – you can choose any that you like. Just start bashing them out – words, words, words… And then you can go anywhere you like. Probably.

Writing the closing lines and/or paragraphs, however, now that’s hard. How to tie up your intricate web of intrigue? How to finish on a high?

Let’s leave it to the masters, eh? For your entertainment and intellectual wellbeing, 30 of the best closing lines in literature. Bang. The End.

The best book endings

1 . Animal Farm (George Orwell)

The creatures outside looked from pig to man; and from man to pig; and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

2 . A Tale Of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest than I go to than I have ever known.

3 . The Great Gatsby (F Scott Fitzgerald )

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

4 . The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)

But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I been there before.

5 . The Road (Cormac McCarthy)

Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.

6 . Picture Of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)

When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.

7 . Crime And Punishment (Dostoevsky)

But that is the beginning of a new story - the story of the gradual renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing from one world into another, of his initiation into a new unknown life. That might be the subject of a new story, but our present story is ended.

8 . Catcher In The Rye (JD Salinger)

Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.

9 . The Stranger (Albert Camus)

And I too felt ready to live my life again. As if this great outburst of anger had purged all my ills, killed all my hopes, I looked up at the mass of signs and stars in the night sky and laid myself open for the first time to the benign indifference of the world. And finding it so much like myself, in fact so fraternal, I realised that I’d been happy, and that I was still happy. For the final consummation and for me to feel less lonely, my last wish was that there should be a crowd of spectators at my execution and that they should greet me with cries of hatred.

10 . Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë)

I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.

11 . Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)

Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood; and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago; and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.

12 . Heart Of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)

The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky – seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.

13 . Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)

I shall go on in the same way, losing my temper with Ivan the coachman, falling into angry discussions, expressing my opinions tactlessly; there will be still the same wall between the holy of holies of my soul and other people, even my wife; I shall still go on scolding her for my own fright and being remorseful for it; I shall still be as unable to understand with my reason why I pray, and I shall still go on praying; but my life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it.

14 . The Dead (James Joyce)

A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

15 . On The Road (Jack Kerouac)

So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars'll be out, and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.

16 . The Trial (Franz Kafka)

But the hands of one of the gentleman were laid on K.’s throat, while the other pushed the knife deep into his heart and twisted it there, twice. As his eyesight failed, K. saw the two gentlemen cheek by cheek, close in front of his face, watching the result. “Like a dog!” he said, it was as if the shame of it should outlive him.

17 . Post Office (Charles Bukowski)

In the morning it was morning and I was still alive. Maybe I'll write a novel, I thought. And then I did.

18 . The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)

The eyes and faces all turned themselves towards me, and guiding myself by them, as by a magical thread, I stepped into the room

19 . Trainspotting (Irvine Welsh)

He had done what he had wanted to do. He could now never go back to Leith, to Edinburgh, even to Scotland, ever again. There, he could not be anything other than he was. Now, free from them all, for good, he could be what he wanted to be. He’d stand or fall alone. This thought both terrified and excited him as he contemplated life in Amsterdam.

20 . The Big Sleep (Raymond Chandler)

What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or on a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was. But the old man didn’t have to be. He could lie quiet on his canopied bed with his bloodless hands folded on the sheet waiting. His heart was a brief uncertain murmur. His thoughts were as gray as ashes. And in little while, he too, like Rusty Regan would be sleeping the big sleep. On the way downtown I stopped at a bar and had a couple of double Scotches. They didn’t do me any good. All they did was make me think of Silver-Wig and I never saw her again.

21 . Killing Floor (Lee Child)

I had tears in my eyes for more than a hundred miles. Then the old bus rattled over the state line. I looked out at the southeast corner of Alabama. Opened Roscoe's envelope. It was the photograph of Joe. She'd taken it from Molly Beth's valise. Taken it out of the frame. Trimmed it with scissors to fit my pocket. On the back she had written her telephone number. But I didn't need that. I had already committed it to memory.

22 . Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murakami)

Gripping the receiver, I raised my head and turned to see what lay beyond the telephone booth. Where was I now? I had no idea. No idea at all. Where was this place? All that flashed into my eyes were the countless shapes of people walking by to nowhere. Again and again, I called out for Midori from the dead center of this place that was no place

23 . Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)

Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-south-west; then paused, and, after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south, south-east, east

24 . American Psycho (Bret Easton Ellis)

Someone has already taken out a Minolta cellular phone and called for a car, and then, when I'm not really listening, watching instead someone who looks remarkably like Marcus Halberstam paying a check, someone asks, simply, not in relation to anything, "Why?" and though I'm very proud that I have cold blood and that I can keep my nerve and do what I'm supposed to do, I catch something, then realize it: Why? and automatically answering, out of the blue, for no reason, just opening my mouth, words coming out, summarizing for the idiots: "Welll, though I know I should have done that instead of not doing it, I'm twenty-seven for Christ sakes and this is, uh, how life presents itself in a bar or in a club in New York, maybe anywhere, at the end of the century and how people, you know, me, behave, and this is what being Patrick means to me, I guess, so well, yup, uh..." and this is followed by a sigh, then a slight shrug and another sigh, and above one of the doors covered by red velvet drapes in Harry's is a sign and on the sign in letters that match the drapes' color are the words THIS IS NOT AN EXIT.

25 . Emma (Jane Austen)

But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union.

26 . To The Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)

Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision.

27 . Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)

The following decision I make with all the legal impact and support of a signed testament: I wish this memoir to be published only when Lolita is no longer alive.

Thus, neither of us is alive when the reader opens this book. But while the blood still throbs through my writing hand, you are still as much part of blessed matter as I am, and I can still talk to you from here to Alaska. Be true to your Dick. Do not let other fellows touch you. Do not talk to strangers. I hope you will love your baby. I hope it will be a boy. That husband of yours, I hope, will always treat you well, because otherwise my specter shall come at him, like black smoke, like a demented giant, and pull him apart nerve by nerve. And do not pity C. Q. One had to choose between him and H.H., and one wanted H.H. to exist at least a couple of months longer, so as to have him make you live in the minds of later generations. I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita.

28 . The Unnamable (Samuel Beckett)

Perhaps it’s done already, perhaps they have said me already, perhaps they have carried me to the threshold of my story, before the door that opens on my story, that would surprise me, if it opens, it will be I, it will be the silence, where I am, I don’t know, I’ll never know, in the silence you don’t know, you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.

29 . Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows (JK Rowling)

The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.

30 . Any Human Heart (William Boyd)

Life in the old dog. Life – still living, pleased to have managed to live in every decade of this long benighted century. What a time I’ve had – quel parcours, as the French say. I think a drink is called for. Yes, absolutely – I will open a chill bottle of white wine and take it out and sit under the big chestnut and drink a toast to Logan Mountstuart. Every decade. All my ups and downs. My personal rollercoaster. Not so much a rollercoaster - a rollercoaster's too smooth - a yo-yo rather - a jerking, spinning toy in the hands of a maladroit child, more like, trying too hard, too impatiently eager to learn how to operate his new yo-yo.

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34 of literature's greatest opening paragraphs

In a short paper—even a research paper—you don’t need to provide an exhaustive summary as part of your conclusion. But you do need to make some kind of transition between your final body paragraph and your concluding paragraph. This may come in the form of a few sentences of summary. Or it may come in the form of a sentence that brings your readers back to your thesis or main idea and reminds your readers where you began and how far you have traveled.

So, for example, in a paper about the relationship between ADHD and rejection sensitivity, Vanessa Roser begins by introducing readers to the fact that researchers have studied the relationship between the two conditions and then provides her explanation of that relationship. Here’s her thesis: “While socialization may indeed be an important factor in RS, I argue that individuals with ADHD may also possess a neurological predisposition to RS that is exacerbated by the differing executive and emotional regulation characteristic of ADHD.”

In her final paragraph, Roser reminds us of where she started by echoing her thesis: “This literature demonstrates that, as with many other conditions, ADHD and RS share a delicately intertwined pattern of neurological similarities that is rooted in the innate biology of an individual’s mind, a connection that cannot be explained in full by the behavioral mediation hypothesis.”  

Highlight the “so what”  

At the beginning of your paper, you explain to your readers what’s at stake—why they should care about the argument you’re making. In your conclusion, you can bring readers back to those stakes by reminding them why your argument is important in the first place. You can also draft a few sentences that put those stakes into a new or broader context.

In the conclusion to her paper about ADHD and RS, Roser echoes the stakes she established in her introduction—that research into connections between ADHD and RS has led to contradictory results, raising questions about the “behavioral mediation hypothesis.”

She writes, “as with many other conditions, ADHD and RS share a delicately intertwined pattern of neurological similarities that is rooted in the innate biology of an individual’s mind, a connection that cannot be explained in full by the behavioral mediation hypothesis.”  

Leave your readers with the “now what”  

After the “what” and the “so what,” you should leave your reader with some final thoughts. If you have written a strong introduction, your readers will know why you have been arguing what you have been arguing—and why they should care. And if you’ve made a good case for your thesis, then your readers should be in a position to see things in a new way, understand new questions, or be ready for something that they weren’t ready for before they read your paper.

In her conclusion, Roser offers two “now what” statements. First, she explains that it is important to recognize that the flawed behavioral mediation hypothesis “seems to place a degree of fault on the individual. It implies that individuals with ADHD must have elicited such frequent or intense rejection by virtue of their inadequate social skills, erasing the possibility that they may simply possess a natural sensitivity to emotion.” She then highlights the broader implications for treatment of people with ADHD, noting that recognizing the actual connection between rejection sensitivity and ADHD “has profound implications for understanding how individuals with ADHD might best be treated in educational settings, by counselors, family, peers, or even society as a whole.”

To find your own “now what” for your essay’s conclusion, try asking yourself these questions:

• What can my readers now understand, see in a new light, or grapple with that they would not have understood in the same way before reading my paper? Are we a step closer to understanding a larger phenomenon or to understanding why what was at stake is so important?  
• What questions can I now raise that would not have made sense at the beginning of my paper? Questions for further research? Other ways that this topic could be approached?  
• Are there other applications for my research? Could my questions be asked about different data in a different context? Could I use my methods to answer a different question?  
• What action should be taken in light of this argument? What action do I predict will be taken or could lead to a solution?  
• What larger context might my argument be a part of?  

What to avoid in your conclusion  

• a complete restatement of all that you have said in your paper.  
• a substantial counterargument that you do not have space to refute; you should introduce counterarguments before your conclusion.  
• an apology for what you have not said. If you need to explain the scope of your paper, you should do this sooner—but don’t apologize for what you have not discussed in your paper.  
• fake transitions like “in conclusion” that are followed by sentences that aren’t actually conclusions. (“In conclusion, I have now demonstrated that my thesis is correct.”)
• picture_as_pdf Conclusions

Conclusions

What this handout is about.

This handout will explain the functions of conclusions, offer strategies for writing effective ones, help you evaluate conclusions you’ve drafted, and suggest approaches to avoid.

About conclusions

Introductions and conclusions can be difficult to write, but they’re worth investing time in. They can have a significant influence on a reader’s experience of your paper.

Just as your introduction acts as a bridge that transports your readers from their own lives into the “place” of your analysis, your conclusion can provide a bridge to help your readers make the transition back to their daily lives. Such a conclusion will help them see why all your analysis and information should matter to them after they put the paper down.

Your conclusion is your chance to have the last word on the subject. The conclusion allows you to have the final say on the issues you have raised in your paper, to synthesize your thoughts, to demonstrate the importance of your ideas, and to propel your reader to a new view of the subject. It is also your opportunity to make a good final impression and to end on a positive note.

Your conclusion can go beyond the confines of the assignment. The conclusion pushes beyond the boundaries of the prompt and allows you to consider broader issues, make new connections, and elaborate on the significance of your findings.

Your conclusion should make your readers glad they read your paper. Your conclusion gives your reader something to take away that will help them see things differently or appreciate your topic in personally relevant ways. It can suggest broader implications that will not only interest your reader, but also enrich your reader’s life in some way. It is your gift to the reader.

Strategies for writing an effective conclusion

One or more of the following strategies may help you write an effective conclusion:

• Play the “So What” Game. If you’re stuck and feel like your conclusion isn’t saying anything new or interesting, ask a friend to read it with you. Whenever you make a statement from your conclusion, ask the friend to say, “So what?” or “Why should anybody care?” Then ponder that question and answer it. Here’s how it might go: You: Basically, I’m just saying that education was important to Douglass. Friend: So what? You: Well, it was important because it was a key to him feeling like a free and equal citizen. Friend: Why should anybody care? You: That’s important because plantation owners tried to keep slaves from being educated so that they could maintain control. When Douglass obtained an education, he undermined that control personally. You can also use this strategy on your own, asking yourself “So What?” as you develop your ideas or your draft.
• Return to the theme or themes in the introduction. This strategy brings the reader full circle. For example, if you begin by describing a scenario, you can end with the same scenario as proof that your essay is helpful in creating a new understanding. You may also refer to the introductory paragraph by using key words or parallel concepts and images that you also used in the introduction.
• Synthesize, don’t summarize. Include a brief summary of the paper’s main points, but don’t simply repeat things that were in your paper. Instead, show your reader how the points you made and the support and examples you used fit together. Pull it all together.
• Include a provocative insight or quotation from the research or reading you did for your paper.
• Propose a course of action, a solution to an issue, or questions for further study. This can redirect your reader’s thought process and help them to apply your info and ideas to their own life or to see the broader implications.
• Point to broader implications. For example, if your paper examines the Greensboro sit-ins or another event in the Civil Rights Movement, you could point out its impact on the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. A paper about the style of writer Virginia Woolf could point to her influence on other writers or on later feminists.

Strategies to avoid

• Beginning with an unnecessary, overused phrase such as “in conclusion,” “in summary,” or “in closing.” Although these phrases can work in speeches, they come across as wooden and trite in writing.
• Stating the thesis for the very first time in the conclusion.
• Introducing a new idea or subtopic in your conclusion.
• Ending with a rephrased thesis statement without any substantive changes.
• Making sentimental, emotional appeals that are out of character with the rest of an analytical paper.
• Including evidence (quotations, statistics, etc.) that should be in the body of the paper.

Four kinds of ineffective conclusions

• The “That’s My Story and I’m Sticking to It” Conclusion. This conclusion just restates the thesis and is usually painfully short. It does not push the ideas forward. People write this kind of conclusion when they can’t think of anything else to say. Example: In conclusion, Frederick Douglass was, as we have seen, a pioneer in American education, proving that education was a major force for social change with regard to slavery.
• The “Sherlock Holmes” Conclusion. Sometimes writers will state the thesis for the very first time in the conclusion. You might be tempted to use this strategy if you don’t want to give everything away too early in your paper. You may think it would be more dramatic to keep the reader in the dark until the end and then “wow” them with your main idea, as in a Sherlock Holmes mystery. The reader, however, does not expect a mystery, but an analytical discussion of your topic in an academic style, with the main argument (thesis) stated up front. Example: (After a paper that lists numerous incidents from the book but never says what these incidents reveal about Douglass and his views on education): So, as the evidence above demonstrates, Douglass saw education as a way to undermine the slaveholders’ power and also an important step toward freedom.
• The “America the Beautiful”/”I Am Woman”/”We Shall Overcome” Conclusion. This kind of conclusion usually draws on emotion to make its appeal, but while this emotion and even sentimentality may be very heartfelt, it is usually out of character with the rest of an analytical paper. A more sophisticated commentary, rather than emotional praise, would be a more fitting tribute to the topic. Example: Because of the efforts of fine Americans like Frederick Douglass, countless others have seen the shining beacon of light that is education. His example was a torch that lit the way for others. Frederick Douglass was truly an American hero.
• The “Grab Bag” Conclusion. This kind of conclusion includes extra information that the writer found or thought of but couldn’t integrate into the main paper. You may find it hard to leave out details that you discovered after hours of research and thought, but adding random facts and bits of evidence at the end of an otherwise-well-organized essay can just create confusion. Example: In addition to being an educational pioneer, Frederick Douglass provides an interesting case study for masculinity in the American South. He also offers historians an interesting glimpse into slave resistance when he confronts Covey, the overseer. His relationships with female relatives reveal the importance of family in the slave community.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Douglass, Frederick. 1995. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. New York: Dover.

Hamilton College. n.d. “Conclusions.” Writing Center. Accessed June 14, 2019. https://www.hamilton.edu//academics/centers/writing/writing-resources/conclusions .

Holewa, Randa. 2004. “Strategies for Writing a Conclusion.” LEO: Literacy Education Online. Last updated February 19, 2004. https://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/conclude.html.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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How to Write a Memorable Conclusion: 5 Techniques of Famous Writers

Published November 5, 2019 | Last Updated April 10, 2024 By Nicole Bianchi 8 Comments

You’ve spent hours pouring your heart and soul into a blog post. You have an important message to share with your audience, and you’ve crafted a piece that you know will help them.

But now you’ve reached the conclusion, and you don’t know what to write. You fear that you’ve said all you have to say, and if you tack on more sentences to your piece, you’ll just be repeating yourself.

But you know you can’t skip the conclusion. If you’re writing a persuasive or inspirational piece, the conclusion is the last place you have to convince the reader of your opinion. A weak conclusion can diminish the effect of your entire piece of writing.

It’s like if you were enjoying a three-course meal at a fancy restaurant. The soup was creamy and delicious, the steak was perfectly cooked, but then the dessert arrived, and the pie tasted funny. That’s the taste that’s going to linger in your mouth after you finish the meal.

Just like the chef needs to wow you with the final course, you need to wow your readers with your conclusion. Otherwise, your piece will feel unfinished and be unsatisfying to your readers.

So how can you wow your readers?

In today’s blog post, let’s look at five different techniques famous writers have used to craft powerful conclusions that made their pieces memorable.

1. The Bonus Tip

This is a fantastic conclusion for blog posts, especially how-to’s or personal development articles.

It works like this: Let’s say you’ve shared in the body of your article a step-by-step process for accomplishing something. For example, you’re writing about how to master the basics of drawing in 30 days. But you save one final “bonus” tip for your conclusion.

It should be a tip that ties everything together. Usually, it’s best if it’s motivational or profound. For example, you might write in your conclusion about how none of the strategies will work unless the reader commits to practicing every day and doesn’t allow themselves to grow discouraged if their first drawings look terrible.

Neil Gaiman used this type of conclusion in his 2012 commencement speech at The University of the Arts. In his speech, he shared the six lessons he wished he knew when he was first starting out as a writer: how to follow your passion, how to deal with failure, etc.

Then, in his conclusion, he tied everything together with a final piece of advice that would help you implement all of the previous tips he’d shared:

Someone asked me recently how to do something she thought was going to be difficult, in this case recording an audio book, and I suggested she pretend that she was someone who could do it. Not pretend to do it, but pretend she was someone who could. She put up a notice to this effect on the studio wall, and she said it helped. So be wise, because the world needs more wisdom, and if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would. And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.

Notice that Gaiman makes his conclusion even more powerful by including several more lines after his “bonus tip” that call his hearers to action. Adding a call to action is an excellent way to make your conclusion more compelling if you’re writing an inspirational piece.

2. The Quote

This type of conclusion is quite simple. You include a quote either at the beginning of your conclusion or at the end.

Make sure your quote is not overly long and that it either sums up the main idea of your piece or it adds a final thought to ruminate over. It’s often best not to just tack on the quote to the end of your piece. Don’t write: “In conclusion, here’s a thought-provoking quote to end with…”

Instead, use the quote to back up your concluding thoughts. For example, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. uses a quote with heart-stirring effect in the conclusion of his famous “I Have A Dream” speech:

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we’re free at last!’

3. The Zoom-In

This type of conclusion works well for personal essays. Essentially, you take a specific image or moment in time and zoom in on it, describing it in more detail. The image should encapsulate the main idea of your piece.

E. B. White uses this type of conclusion in his essay “Here is New York” . White takes a stroll through New York City and reflects on the city’s personality. He ends with the image of an old willow tree,

A block or two west of the new City of Man in Turtle Bay there is an old willow tree that presides over an interior garden. It is a battered tree, long suffering and much climbed, held together by strands of wire but beloved of those who know it. In a way it symbolizes the city: life under difficulties, growth against odds, sap-rise in the midst of concrete, and the steady reaching for the sun. Whenever I look at it nowadays, and feel the cold shadow of the planes, I think: ‘This must be saved, this particular thing, this very tree.’ If it were to go, all would go — this city, this mischievous and marvelous monument which not to look upon would be like death.

4. The Full Circle Story

In this article , I wrote about how a story can make for a captivating introduction. It can be a story about yourself or an anecdote that relates somehow to the theme of your piece.

Now here’s the cool part: If you open your piece with a story, you can bring it full circle by returning to it in your conclusion.

Usually, this is most effective if you left the story open-ended in your introduction. Your readers are waiting to find out what happens.

Or if you concluded the story in your introduction, you can revisit it from a different angle at the end of your piece.

You can also use the “full circle” technique with a story you shared later on in the body of your piece. For example, Virginia Woolf mentions Shakespeare’s sister in the body of her essay “A Room of One’s Own” .

In the conclusion, she brings this story full circle:

I told you in the course of this paper that Shakespeare had a sister; but do not look for her in Sir Sidney Lee’s life of the poet. She died young — alas, she never wrote a word…Now my belief is that this poet who never wrote a word and was buried at the crossroads still lives. She lives in you and in me, and in many other women who are not here tonight, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed…Drawing her life from the lives of the unknown who were her forerunners, as her brother did before her, she will be born. As for her coming without that preparation, without that effort on our part, without that determination that when she is born again she shall find it possible to live and write her poetry, that we cannot expect, for that would be impossible. But I maintain that she would come if we worked for her, and that so to work, even in poverty and obscurity, is worthwhile.

5. The Urgent Call to Action

Finally, as we have seen earlier, if you’re writing a persuasive or motivational piece, it is very effective to end with a “call to action” conclusion.

This type of conclusion emphasizes the urgency of solving the problem. What happens if your readers don’t take action? What will happen if they do?

One of the most famous calls to action appears at the end of Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death” speech:

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

The Takeaway

These five techniques are only a small selection of the many different ways you can end a piece of writing.

You can even combine several of these techniques together to make them more powerful. For example, a conclusion could open with a quote, then share a bonus tip, and end on a call to action.

No matter how you decide to conclude your piece, make sure you’re not just summarizing or repeating what you’ve already said in the previous paragraphs.

Dig deeper than you have in the body of your piece. Take your arguments to their most profound extent. Leave your readers with a final thought to chew on.

In his book Storycraft (Amazon affiliate link) , editor Jack Hart observes,

Resolution is the ultimate aim of every story… It contains the lesson that the audience carries away, the insight that the story’s readers or viewers or listeners can apply to their own lives.

Zero in on that one lesson, that one big idea, you want your readers to take away. This will make your conclusion and, thus, your entire piece memorable, just like the last satisfying bite of a delicious meal.

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Chinonso Amechi says

April 25, 2022 at 11:34 am

Hi Nicole. It was helpful and educative reading through your content. Thanks for sharing. I may as well love to get in touch. Thanks.

Eric Bullock says

April 14, 2020 at 7:59 pm

The guide is clear and bright, without any added useless facts or else.

The language is equally brilliant and colorful, so the longer I read, the more I do like it!

Shweta says

January 16, 2020 at 1:52 am

Thank you Nichole. This article is helpful. I navigated to your site through Medium.

Thomas Sparley says

November 19, 2019 at 7:12 am

Nicole, I have been writing technical reports for proposals, assessments and project completions for 30 years. The last 7 years I have wrote my daily journal after life-safing surgeries gave me another chance to create. Reading your helpful tips on writing has given me a clear perspective of how I can be more expressive and creative.

yamini says

November 11, 2019 at 3:49 am

thank you. that was very helpful

Nicole Bianchi says

November 12, 2019 at 3:08 pm

You’re welcome, Yamini. 🙂 I’m glad you found it helpful!

Kristina says

November 10, 2019 at 11:18 pm

Nicole – just want to say thanks for all you do. I love your work, and am grateful to be part of the FB group. I enjoy your writing, and got a lot out of the SC Gwynne Outlining piece. Many, many thanks!

November 12, 2019 at 3:09 pm

Thanks so much, Kristina! That’s so kind of you, and I am happy to hear you enjoyed the SC GWynne piece. I wish you much success with your writing! 🙂

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15 Powerful Speech Ending Lines (And Tips to Create Your Own)

Hitiksha jain.

• Public Speaking , Speech Writing

A powerful speech ending line helps you recapture the essence of your speech: your main points and the purpose of why you spoke.

Basically, it is a summary of your dominant points. 

The words you say at the beginning, and especially at the end of your talk will be remembered longer than any other part of your speech. (This doesn’t mean the body of your speech has no importance.)

The beginning of your speech needs to be strong because it grips the attention of your audience. If that falls apart, they might lose interest in your speech. To avoid such a situation, here’s an article on 15 Powerful Speech Opening Lines (And How to Create Your Own) that you can refer to.

It has happened time after time- a speaker has concluded his speech with no conclusion or a simple “Thank you!” which made their impactful and amazing speech entirely fall apart.

An ineffective conclusion or no conclusion makes your speech lose its charm and the energy that has been created. This leaves your audience in a state of confusion and disappointment. 

Remember, the conclusion of your speech is NOT the time to introduce new points or new supporting evidence; doing so will all the more confuse the listeners. 

Instead, a conclusion is like tying a bow or ribbon to a box of your key ideas that your audience will be taking along with them. Meaning, it’s the final touch that makes your speech stand out and memorable.

So, how can you end your speech with a bang? To discover it, let’s jump in to the 15 powerful speech ending lines and ways to create your own:

1) Abraham Lincoln

Speech ending line: “And this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the Earth.”

How to use The Rule Of Three to end your speech?

The Rule of Three is an effective technique that allows you to express your ideas more completely by emphasizing your points and increasing the memorability of your message.

Dale Carneige once said, 

“Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you just told them.”

Information when presented in a group of three sticks in our head better than say, groups of four or five.

The answer is simple! We humans are generally good at pattern recognition and three is the smallest number needed to make a pattern. When used at the end of a speech, you can create maximum impact, (obviously) if said in a proper tone of voice. 

Repeating your ideas can make your message more persuasive, memorable, and entertaining.

Since, the conclusion is your last chance as a speaker to drive home your ideas, you need to repeat and emphasize phrases, sentences and words to make others remember your key message. 

The repetition of phrases and sentences should be such that it creates a micro story of your entire speech. 

If you are trying to incorporate the rule of three in your speech and need guidance to do so. Here’s an article on The Power of the Rule of Three in Speech Writing that might help you!

2) Simon Sinek

Speech ending line: “Listen to politicians now, with their comprehensive 12-point plans. They’re not inspiring anybody. Because there are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or authority, but those who lead inspire us. Whether they’re individuals or organizations, we follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves. And it’s those who start with “why” that have the ability to inspire those around them or find others who inspire them.”

How to mark an end of a speech with a story?

Telling stories can do wonders in making your speech a memorable one. Because we as humans relate to stories. 

Using an effective and persuasive story at the end can engage the audience, evoke empathy, increase trust and motivate action.

Your story should be crafted in such a way that it sums up your entire speech. But don’t forget, it needs to be short and sweet.

You can start your story by saying, “Let me tell you a story that illustrates what I have been talking about…”

To make your speech/story worth remembering, you can try these various storytelling approaches mentioned in this article- 9 Storytelling Approaches For Your Next Speech or Presentation .

3) Les Brown

Speech ending line: “If you want a thing bad enough To go out and fight for it, Work day and night for it, Give up your time and your peace and Your sleep for it

If only desire of it Makes you quite mad enough Never to tire of it, Makes you hold all other things tawdry And cheap for it

If life seems all empty and useless without it And all that you scheme and you dream is about it,

If gladly you’ll sweat for it, Fret for it, Plan for it, Lose all your terror of God or man for it,

If you’ll simply go after that thing that you want. With all your capacity, Strength and sagacity, Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,

If neither cold, poverty, famished and gaunt, Nor sickness nor pain Of body or brain Can turn you away from the thing that you want,

If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it, You’ll get it.”

How to end a speech with a poem?

This works similar to the notion of storytelling. 

You can end your speech with a poem that summarizes your entire speech. To do this you can either make your own or select the one that works the best for your speech. If you select one, remember to cite the source.

While reciting a poem add emotions and drama to your words, raise your voice on a key line of the poem and pause whenever required.

Poetry is a powerful way to get your point across because it helps you create an impression in your audiences’ mind. If you are planning to tap into poetry for your next speech, we have written an article- Getting Your ‘Wordsworth’: Poetry in Public Speaking that you can review to get some tips on how to add a poem in your speech.

4) Sir Ken Robinson

Speech ending line: “There’s a wonderful quote from Benjamin Franklin. “There are three sorts of people in the world: Those who are immovable, people who don’t get it, or don’t want to do anything about it; there are people who are movable, people who see the need for change and are prepared to listen to it; and there are people who move, people who make things happen.” And if we can encourage more people, that will be a movement. And if the movement is strong enough, that’s, in the best sense of the word, a revolution. And that’s what we need.”

How to close a speech with a memorable quote?

Quotations are usually concise and memorable phrasing of an idea. (This is why we repeat and remember quotations, right?)

The sole reason to quote material is that it reinforces your ideas. A quotation offers a second voice echoing your claims which is more powerful than simply just repeating yourself.

So, your quote should be such that summarizes your main idea. You can quote words of an expert, a person who spoke before you at an event or something in your own words.

Tips for using quotations in your speech:

• Phrasing it correctly can help boost your credibility
• Don’t quote anything outside your context

Taking the above example of Sir Ken Robinson, the quoted words at the end of his speech summarized the heart of his speech.

5) Lera Boroditsky

Speech ending line: “It’s how the language that you speak shapes the way that you think. And that gives you the opportunity to ask, “Why do I think the way that I do?” “How could I think differently?” And also, “What thoughts do I wish to create?”

How to end a speech with a question?

You can try and engage your audience with questions that will get them thinking.

It is often effective to end with a rhetorical question that captures the message and leaves the audience thinking—especially one that directly ties in your CTA. For instance:

“What choice will you make when you leave here today? Will you ____(your key message), or will you go about your normal routine?”

See how Lera Boroditsky leaves her audience with a set of questions rattling around their minds.

6) Melissa Butler  

Speech ending line: “So I challenge each of you, when you go home today, look at yourself in the mirror, see all of you, look at all of your greatness that you embody, accept it, and love it. And finally, when you leave the house tomorrow, try to extend that same love and acceptance to someone who doesn’t look like you. Thank you.”

How to give a challenge close to your speech?

In the above example, Melissa Butler used a challenge close to force her audience to take action over something.

In this type of closing, you challenge your audience to apply whatever you spoke in your speech and engage them in thought or action.

A good way to do that is to make sure they know you’re aware of the challenges that exist, and that you have concrete and actionable solutions to it.

To do this, you can have a bit of a forceful tone of voice to make a failure process a learning one.

Do express your belief in them and focus on setting a high bar, but an achievable one.

7) Brian Kateman

Speech ending line: “You can change the world by ordering a smaller steak, or doing something more. But don’t just sit by and ignore what you already know. Consider eating less meat and be a reducetarian.

Save our planet, improve your health, and save a lot of animals.”

How to end a speech by giving a solution to a concern?

This type of closing is suitable for speeches where you talk about a problem and give a solution for the same.

First you introduce the problem and explain why the audience should be concerned about it.

While concluding, you provide a practical solution to the stated concern. 

Look at how Brian Kateman states a problem: The battle between vegans, vegetarians, and everyone else and ends up giving a pragmatic solution.

8) Anjelah Johnson

Speech ending line: “Really?! It’s funny because my finger didn’t do like that before I came in here.” “It’s okay honey, don’t worry. I’ll fix it for you, don’t worry.” (Imitates talking in Vietnamese) (Laughter) (Laughter) (Stops talking Vietnamese) “Oh, see? You look so pretty!” God bless, you guys.”

How to leave your audience with a good laugh?

Wouldn’t you love leaving your audience with a good laugh? Ending your speech with humor can help you to do so. 

But you need to use them with caution. Tell jokes that are related to your speech. And avoid telling offensive jokes.

You can add anecdotes and funny stories that have happened in real life since it’s easy to relate to and, if said in a correct manner, you can have your audience laughing while hitting your message home!

Tips to deliver a good humor:

• Surprise your audience by breaking their expectations with the help of a good setup and punchline. Setup creates a specific expectation in people’s minds and a punchline reveals the surprise. For instance, “I believe that each person can make a difference (setup), but it’s so slight that there’s basically no point (punch)”
• Try and impersonate your dialogues or the characters as it will make your listeners feel they are in the scene
• You can twist the literal meaning of a word. Example- Everybody looked up to me in college because I was the tallest of all
• You can also incorporate the rule of three that works similar to the setup and punchline technique i.e. setup, setup, punch. Take an example of Elicia Sanchez, “I was a super nerd when I was a kid. I liked video games, I liked comic books, I was the youngest mage in the D&D campaign I was part of with 30-year-olds at the Yardbirds in Centralia, Washington.”

Apart from this, always test and rehearse the humor that you are going to incorporate and ask for honest feedback. Also, make sure the jokes and stories you use add value to your point and are insightful

9) Yubing Zhang

Speech ending line: “As the words said high on the bungee platform, “Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.”

How to end a speech using the circle theory?

Here, the idea is to take your audience on a journey and get them back to the place from where you started, making a circle.

Meaning, you refer back to what you started with (movie, words, quote).

Yubing Zhang begins her speech with- Life Begins at The Edge of Your Comfort Zone” and ends with the same. 

You can bookend your speech in different ways:

• You can end by referencing your opening
• Concluding words can contrast from your opening words.
• Open with a question and answer it at the end 

We have written an in-depth article on 7 Techniques to Bookending Your Speech: Guidelines and Examples . Review it for some inspiration!

10) BJ Miller

Speech ending line: “Parts of me died early on, and that’s something we can all say one way or another. I got to redesign my life around this fact, and I tell you it has been a liberation to realize you can always find a shock of beauty or meaning in what life you have left, like that snowball lasting for a perfect moment, all the while melting away. If we love such moments ferociously, then maybe we can learn to live well — not in spite of death, but because of it. Let death be what takes us, not lack of imagination.”

How to close a speech with an inspiring note?

Okay, let’s be real here. We humans are dealing with problems, difficulties, challenges, disappointments, setbacks, and temporary failures.

Ending your speech with an uplifting talk that gives a ray of hope might encourage your audience.

“Inspiring your audience is all about helping them see their own vision, not yours.” Anonymous

If your hope is to inspire your audience then your material needs to be about them and ways on how they can grow .

To do so you can opt for stories or share your personal experiences to get your message alive, but you need to paint a picture of what your audiences’ vision is when it comes to themselves and how you can help them achieve that vision by your talk.

11) Dr. Shashi Tharoor

Speech ending line: “95% of our 12 year-olds across India can read and write. So the future looks good. And as far as the workforce is concerned, if we can get all these other pieces in place, we can say to the rest of the world, “We are coming.”

How to end your speech with facts?

Adding only facts in a speech can make it boring, right? Because there’s nothing entertaining about that.

Well, this wouldn’t be a case when you use the right facts in a proper way and at a proper time. 

Adding facts as a speech ending line can be a way through which you can re-engage your audience, leaving them mesmerized. 

Incorporate only those facts that are relevant to your topic because you don’t want to make them apathetic towards you.

Present your facts in a creative manner. For instance, asking a question after when you stated the fact, audience poll, or add humor.

Trying to add facts in your speech without making it sound boring? Here’s an article- 11 Steps to Add Facts in A Speech Without Making It Boring that can guide you. 

12) Cameron Russell

Speech ending line: “If there’s a takeaway to this talk, I hope it’s that we all feel more comfortable acknowledging the power of image in our perceived successes and our perceived failures.”  

How to leave your audience with a piece of advice?

This works similar to the fact concept.

Your advices should get your audience encouraged about something and not discourage them or make them feel incompetent.

Try to chunk your advice into simple steps that your audience can follow. Inject emotions, relate it to your own experience (if possible) and make it inspirational.

The sole purpose of giving advice is to help someone. Don’t forget that!

Because a lot of times the advice is created on the basis of expectation and not understanding others. To simplify it, you need to understand the problem that your audience is facing and then advise them keeping your expectations and judgements aside.

Look at how Cameron Russell makes people feel good about themselves by empowering them regardless of the topic.

13) Nora Mclnerny

Speech ending line: “But yes, absolutely, they’re going to move forward. But that doesn’t mean that they’ve moved on.”

How to use a title close to end your speech?

To give your speech a title close, your speech needs to have a provocative title that encapsulates your message memorably. 

Use the title of your speech as your closing words to stir your audience to think more fully about what they just heard, reinforcing the title of your speech mentioned earlier.

14) Alfred Chuang

Speech ending line: “A new world is on the horizon. And it will be more incredible than any of us can possibly imagine. Our greatest innovations are ahead of us, not behind. But we need great engineers to build that world for us. And that’s you. We need you to not give up. Ever. We need you to finish your projects. Done, done, done. We need you to leverage the power of an immigrant-rich workforce. And we need you all to be a little insane.”

How to make a direct call to action at the end of your speech?

A well constructed and presented speech is the one that changes people’s mind and ignites action.

The call to action comes right before the end of a persuasive speech. Here, you clearly tell the audience the role they can play after they leave your talk.

It serves as a road map that your listeners can follow after when they are thoroughly gripped to your idea. Because they exactly know what they need to do.

In the above example, you can see how Alfred Chuang delivered a powerful CTA, as he clearly explains what listeners can do to push his idea forward.

Barring this type of a CTA, the other forms include signing a petition, buying your product, visiting your website.

15) Barack Obama

Speech ending line: “So let’s get to work, people. Let’s bring this home. I love you, Philadelphia. Honk if you’re fired up, honk if you’re ready to go. Are you fired up?”

How to use an appeal to end your speech?

The most common closing for a persuasive speech can be an appeal for action.

You can shape your appeal according to who your intended audience is and the purpose of you talking to them.

One of the best ways to make an appeal is by tapping into their emotions in order to form a deeper connection with the listeners.

Avoid making your message too pushy. Instead, try and make your content relatable and valuable for them. This is when the audience is much more likely to pay attention to you.

Valuable reads: The Secret of Writing a Persuasive Speech 

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Final Thoughts

Depending on the type of speech you are presenting, you will be asking the audience for something. And that can be- asking them to act in a certain way, or to change their attitude towards a certain person or topic or simply make them understand what you’re trying to say.

Nonetheless, the conclusion of your speech is to leave the audience positively motivated towards you and the topic you have been presenting. 

Hopefully, these 15 examples will guide you to create your own speech ending line that is impactful.

Let us know in the comments below which one worked for you.

Still looking for inspiration? Check out this video we made on closing remarks:

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How to write an excellent thesis conclusion [with examples]

Restate the thesis

Review or reiterate key points of your work, explain why your work is relevant, a take-away for the reader, more resources on writing thesis conclusions, frequently asked questions about writing an excellent thesis conclusion, related articles.

At this point in your writing, you have most likely finished your introduction and the body of your thesis, dissertation, or research paper . While this is a reason to celebrate, you should not underestimate the importance of your conclusion. The conclusion is the last thing that your reader will see, so it should be memorable.

A good conclusion will review the key points of the thesis and explain to the reader why the information is relevant, applicable, or related to the world as a whole. Make sure to dedicate enough of your writing time to the conclusion and do not put it off until the very last minute.

This article provides an effective technique for writing a conclusion adapted from Erika Eby’s The College Student's Guide to Writing a Good Research Paper: 101 Easy Tips & Tricks to Make Your Work Stand Out .

While the thesis introduction starts out with broad statements about the topic, and then narrows it down to the thesis statement , a thesis conclusion does the same in the opposite order.

• Restate the thesis.
• Review or reiterate key points of your work.
• Explain why your work is relevant.
• Include a core take-away message for the reader.

Tip: Don’t just copy and paste your thesis into your conclusion. Restate it in different words.

The best way to start a conclusion is simply by restating the thesis statement. That does not mean just copying and pasting it from the introduction, but putting it into different words.

You will need to change the structure and wording of it to avoid sounding repetitive. Also, be firm in your conclusion just as you were in the introduction. Try to avoid sounding apologetic by using phrases like "This paper has tried to show..."

The conclusion should address all the same parts as the thesis while making it clear that the reader has reached the end. You are telling the reader that your research is finished and what your findings are.

I have argued throughout this work that the point of critical mass for biopolitical immunity occurred during the Romantic period because of that era's unique combination of post-revolutionary politics and innovations in smallpox prevention. In particular, I demonstrated that the French Revolution and the discovery of vaccination in the 1790s triggered a reconsideration of the relationship between bodies and the state.

Tip: Try to reiterate points from your introduction in your thesis conclusion.

The next step is to review the main points of the thesis as a whole. Look back at the body of of your project and make a note of the key ideas. You can reword these ideas the same way you reworded your thesis statement and then incorporate that into the conclusion.

You can also repeat striking quotations or statistics, but do not use more than two. As the conclusion represents your own closing thoughts on the topic , it should mainly consist of your own words.

In addition, conclusions can contain recommendations to the reader or relevant questions that further the thesis. You should ask yourself:

• What you would ideally like to see your readers do in reaction to your paper?
• Do you want them to take a certain action or investigate further?
• Is there a bigger issue that your paper wants to draw attention to?

Also, try to reference your introduction in your conclusion. You have already taken a first step by restating your thesis. Now, check whether there are other key words, phrases or ideas that are mentioned in your introduction that fit into your conclusion. Connecting the introduction to the conclusion in this way will help readers feel satisfied.

I explored how Mary Wollstonecraft, in both her fiction and political writings, envisions an ideal medico-political state, and how other writers like William Wordsworth and Mary Shelley increasingly imagined the body politic literally, as an incorporated political collective made up of bodies whose immunity to political and medical ills was essential to a healthy state.

Tip: Make sure to explain why your thesis is relevant to your field of research.

Although you can encourage readers to question their opinions and reflect on your topic, do not leave loose ends. You should provide a sense of resolution and make sure your conclusion wraps up your argument. Make sure you explain why your thesis is relevant to your field of research and how your research intervenes within, or substantially revises, existing scholarly debates.

This project challenged conventional ideas about the relationship among Romanticism, medicine, and politics by reading the unfolding of Romantic literature and biopolitical immunity as mutual, co-productive processes. In doing so, this thesis revises the ways in which biopolitics has been theorized by insisting on the inherent connections between Romantic literature and the forms of biopower that characterize early modernity.

Tip: If you began your thesis with an anecdote or historical example, you may want to return to that in your conclusion.

End your conclusion with something memorable, such as:

• a call to action
• a recommendation
• a gesture towards future research
• a brief explanation of how the problem or idea you covered remains relevant

Ultimately, you want readers to feel more informed, or ready to act, as they read your conclusion.

Yet, the Romantic period is only the beginning of modern thought on immunity and biopolitics. Victorian writers, doctors, and politicians upheld the Romantic idea that a "healthy state" was a literal condition that could be achieved by combining politics and medicine, but augmented that idea through legislation and widespread public health measures. While many nineteenth-century efforts to improve citizens' health were successful, the fight against disease ultimately changed course in the twentieth century as global immunological threats such as SARS occupied public consciousness. Indeed, as subsequent public health events make apparent, biopolitical immunity persists as a viable concept for thinking about the relationship between medicine and politics in modernity.

Need more advice? Read our 5 additional tips on how to write a good thesis conclusion.

The conclusion is the last thing that your reader will see, so it should be memorable. To write a great thesis conclusion you should:

The basic content of a conclusion is to review the main points from the paper. This part represents your own closing thoughts on the topic. It should mainly consist of the outcome of the research in your own words.

The length of the conclusion will depend on the length of the whole thesis. Usually, a conclusion should be around 5-7% of the overall word count.

End your conclusion with something memorable, such as a question, warning, or call to action. Depending on the topic, you can also end with a recommendation.

In Open Access: Theses and Dissertations you can find thousands of completed works. Take a look at any of the theses or dissertations for real-life examples of conclusions that were already approved.

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How to Conclude an Essay (with Examples)

Last Updated: May 24, 2024 Fact Checked

Writing a Strong Conclusion

What to avoid, brainstorming tricks.

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams and by wikiHow staff writer, Aly Rusciano . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 3,209,997 times.

So, you’ve written an outstanding essay and couldn’t be more proud. But now you have to write the final paragraph. The conclusion simply summarizes what you’ve already written, right? Well, not exactly. Your essay’s conclusion should be a bit more finessed than that. Luckily, you’ve come to the perfect place to learn how to write a conclusion. We’ve put together this guide to fill you in on everything you should and shouldn’t do when ending an essay. Follow our advice, and you’ll have a stellar conclusion worthy of an A+ in no time.

Tips for Ending an Essay

• Rephrase your thesis to include in your final paragraph to bring the essay full circle.
• End your essay with a call to action, warning, or image to make your argument meaningful.
• Keep your conclusion concise and to the point, so you don’t lose a reader’s attention.
• Do your best to avoid adding new information to your conclusion and only emphasize points you’ve already made in your essay.

• “All in all”
• “Ultimately”
• “Furthermore”
• “As a consequence”
• “As a result”

• Make sure to write your main points in a new and unique way to avoid repetition.

• Let’s say this is your original thesis statement: “Allowing students to visit the library during lunch improves campus life and supports academic achievement.”
• Restating your thesis for your conclusion could look like this: “Evidence shows students who have access to their school’s library during lunch check out more books and are more likely to complete their homework.”
• The restated thesis has the same sentiment as the original while also summarizing other points of the essay.

• “When you use plastic water bottles, you pollute the ocean. Switch to using a glass or metal water bottle instead. The planet and sea turtles will thank you.”
• “The average person spends roughly 7 hours on their phone a day, so there’s no wonder cybersickness is plaguing all generations.”
• “Imagine walking on the beach, except the soft sand is made up of cigarette butts. They burn your feet but keep washing in with the tide. If we don’t clean up the ocean, this will be our reality.”
• “ Lost is not only a show that changed the course of television, but it’s also a reflection of humanity as a whole.”
• “If action isn’t taken to end climate change today, the global temperature will dangerously rise from 4.5 to 8 °F (−15.3 to −13.3 °C) by 2100.”

• Focus on your essay's most prevalent or important parts. What key points do you want readers to take away or remember about your essay?

• For instance, instead of writing, “That’s why I think that Abraham Lincoln was the best American President,” write, “That’s why Abraham Lincoln was the best American President.”
• There’s no room for ifs, ands, or buts—your opinion matters and doesn’t need to be apologized for!

• For instance, words like “firstly,” “secondly,” and “thirdly” may be great transition statements for body paragraphs but are unnecessary in a conclusion.

• For instance, say you began your essay with the idea that humanity’s small sense of sense stems from space’s vast size. Try returning to this idea in the conclusion by emphasizing that as human knowledge grows, space becomes smaller.

• For example, you could extend an essay on the television show Orange is the New Black by bringing up the culture of imprisonment in America.

Community Q&A

• Always review your essay after writing it for proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and don’t be afraid to revise. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

Tips from our Readers

• Have somebody else proofread your essay before turning it in. The other person will often be able to see errors you may have missed!

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• ↑ https://www.uts.edu.au/current-students/support/helps/self-help-resources/grammar/transition-signals
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/argument_papers/conclusions.html
• ↑ http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/conclude.html
• ↑ https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/ending-essay-conclusions
• ↑ https://www.pittsfordschools.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=542&dataid=4677&FileName=conclusions1.pdf
• ↑ https://www.cuyamaca.edu/student-support/tutoring-center/files/student-resources/how-to-write-a-good-conclusion.pdf
• ↑ https://library.sacredheart.edu/c.php?g=29803&p=185935

About This Article

To end an essay, start your conclusion with a phrase that makes it clear your essay is coming to a close, like "In summary," or "All things considered." Then, use a few sentences to briefly summarize the main points of your essay by rephrasing the topic sentences of your body paragraphs. Finally, end your conclusion with a call to action that encourages your readers to do something or learn more about your topic. In general, try to keep your conclusion between 5 and 7 sentences long. For more tips from our English co-author, like how to avoid common pitfalls when writing an essay conclusion, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Conclusions

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This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Conclusions wrap up what you have been discussing in your paper. After moving from general to specific information in the introduction and body paragraphs, your conclusion should begin pulling back into more general information that restates the main points of your argument. Conclusions may also call for action or overview future possible research. The following outline may help you conclude your paper:

In a general way,

• Restate your topic and why it is important,
• Restate your thesis/claim,
• Address opposing viewpoints and explain why readers should align with your position,
• Call for action or overview future research possibilities.

Remember that once you accomplish these tasks, unless otherwise directed by your instructor, you are finished. Done. Complete. Don't try to bring in new points or end with a whiz bang(!) conclusion or try to solve world hunger in the final sentence of your conclusion. Simplicity is best for a clear, convincing message.

The preacher's maxim is one of the most effective formulas to follow for argument papers:

Tell what you're going to tell them (introduction).

Tell them (body).

Tell them what you told them (conclusion).

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Jumping To Conclusions Quotes

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It often happens that things are other than what they seem, and you can get yourself into trouble by jumping to conclusions.

As human beings we suffer from an innate tendency to jump to conclusions; to judge people too quickly and to pronounce them failures or heroes without due consideration of the actual facts and ideals of the period.

The only exercise I excel at is jumping to conclusions.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

Some people take no mental exercise apart from jumping to conclusions.

Geometry is beautifully logical, and it teaches you how to think and prove that things are so, step by step by step. Proofs are excellent lessons in reasoning. Without logic and reasoning, you are dependent on jumping to conclusions or - worse - having empty opinions.

The only way some of us exercise our minds is by jumping to conclusions.

I not only think but also look and study things carefully. When I travel around, I look at things carefully, make comparisons of what I see. I don't accept things at face value, you cannot trust what you hear or see. Don't jump to conclusions without thinking.

Based on this one experience I had, jumping to conclusions is always really stupid.

I just think we shouldn't judge her, or anyone, without tryo g to understand them first. That maybe we should get the full story before jumping to conclusions. Crazy notion, I know.

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

Faith is not jumping to conclusions. It is concluding to jump.

my major form of exercise is jumping to conclusions.

Nature's music is never over; her silences are pauses, not conclusions.

Names are not always what they seem.

Mind is a machine for jumping to conclusions

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16 Powerful Leadership Quotes to Inspire Your Team

• The Speaker Lab
• May 21, 2024

Table of Contents

If you’ve been a leader for long enough, then you know how powerful your words and actions are. With them you can either encourage employees or tear them down, and the success of your team often depends on your choice. But when you need to encourage your team, it can be hard to come up with the words to say. That’s where turning to the words of great leaders who have gone before you can be helpful.

When you need to inspire, motivate, or galvanize your team, well-chosen leadership quotes can work wonders. In this article, we’ll be presenting 16 unforgettable quotes from some of the world’s most influential leaders. Whether you’re hoping to set ambitious goals or empower your team, you’ll find that these quotes cover all the bases. Let’s dive in!

As a leader, one of your most important roles is to inspire and motivate your team members. Sometimes, though, even leaders need a little inspiration themselves. That’s where these powerful leadership quotes come in.

Quotes from Famous World Leaders

1. “ A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way .” – John C. Maxwell

This quote from John C. Maxwell, a renowned leadership expert, emphasizes that true leaders not only have a clear vision and direction, but they also lead by example. They’re willing to walk the path they expect their team to follow.

2. “ Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality .” – Warren Bennis

Warren Bennis, a pioneer in leadership studies, highlights that effective leaders possess the ability to turn their aspirations and goals into tangible results. They bridge the gap between ideas and execution.

3. “ The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things. ” – Ronald Reagan

Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan understood that the hallmark of exceptional leadership lies in the ability to inspire and empower others to achieve remarkable feats. Great leaders foster an environment where their team can thrive and reach their full potential.

4. “ The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes. ” – Tony Blair

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair emphasizes the importance of discernment in leadership. Effective leaders understand that saying “no” to certain opportunities or requests is crucial for maintaining focus and allocating resources wisely.

5. “ A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit .” – Arnold H. Glasow

Arnold H. Glasow, an American businessman and humorist, highlights the humility and accountability that good leaders exhibit. They’re willing to shoulder responsibility when things go wrong and give credit to their team when success is achieved.

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Quotes on Leadership and Business Strategy

6. “ Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower .” – Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple, understood that true leadership involves pushing boundaries and embracing innovation. Leaders who prioritize creativity and think outside the box set themselves apart from mere followers.

7. “ The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it .” – Theodore Roosevelt

President Theodore Roosevelt recognized the importance of delegation and trust in leadership. Effective leaders surround themselves with capable individuals and give them the autonomy to excel in their roles without micromanagement. The result? A empowered team that executes tasks brilliantly.

Quotes About Leadership and Empowering Others

As a leader, one of your primary goals should be to unlock your team’s potential and empower them to achieve greatness. The quotes below highlight the transformative power of leadership in inspiring and enabling others.

8. “ The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet .” – Theodore Hesburgh

Father Theodore Hesburgh, former president of the University of Notre Dame, emphasizes the significance of having a clear and compelling vision as a leader. Without a strong sense of direction, leaders cannot effectively guide and inspire their teams.

9. “ A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be .” – Rosalynn Carter

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter highlights the transformative power of great leadership. While good leaders may fulfill people’s immediate desires, exceptional leaders have the courage to challenge their teams to venture into uncharted territories for the sake of growth and progress. They understand that positive leaders empower people to push past their comfort zones and unlock their true potential.

Leadership Quotes from Historical Figures

Throughout history, remarkable leaders have left an indelible mark on the world. Their words of wisdom continue to resonate and inspire us to this day. Let’s explore some powerful leadership quotes from historical figures.

10. “ A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus .” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a prominent civil rights leader, understood that true leadership involves shaping opinions and building unity around a shared vision. Rather than simply following popular sentiment, genuine leaders actively work to create alignment and agreement.

11. “ If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader .” – John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, believed that the essence of leadership lies in the ability to inspire and uplift others. When leaders’ actions motivate their team to pursue personal and professional growth, they are truly making a lasting impact.

Quotes on Leadership and Personal Development

Leadership isn’t just about guiding others—it’s also about continuously developing yourself. The quotes below emphasize the importance of personal growth and self-improvement in becoming an effective leader.

12. “ Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be .” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson, an influential American essayist and philosopher, recognized the transformative power of inspirational leadership . People yearn for leaders who can help them tap into their own potential and become the best versions of themselves.

13. “ The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly .” – Jim Rohn

Jim Rohn, a renowned motivational speaker and author, captures the delicate balance that effective leaders must strike. Leadership requires a combination of strength, kindness, boldness, thoughtfulness, humility, pride, and humor—all in the right measure. Achieving these qualities is a continuous journey of personal development and growth.

Ancient Wisdom on Leadership

Leadership wisdom spans across centuries and cultures. The ancient quotes below offer timeless insights into the essence of effective leadership.

14. “ A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves .” – Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism, emphasizes the power of servant leadership . In his mind, the best leaders are those who empower their teams to take ownership and credit for their accomplishments, while quietly guiding from behind the scenes.

15. “ To lead people, walk behind them .” – Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu’s wisdom highlights the importance of humility and support in leadership. By walking behind their team, leaders demonstrate trust, provide guidance, and allow others to take the lead when appropriate.

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Insight on Attracting and Developing Talent

Great leaders understand that their success is directly tied to the quality of their team. The quote below emphasizes the importance of attracting top talent and investing in their development.

16. “ The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them .” – John Maxwell

John Maxwell, a renowned leadership expert, stresses the critical role of leadership development in organizational success. By attracting top talent, nurturing their leadership skills, and providing ongoing growth opportunities, organizations can unlock limitless potential.

Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It’s about one life influencing another. The leadership quotes we’ve explored today underscore the transformative power of authentic, visionary, and empowering leadership.

As you reflect on these insights from great leaders, remember that leadership is a choice you make every day. So choose to lead with integrity, courage, and compassion. Choose to inspire, motivate, and uplift those around you. And finally, choose to be the leader your team needs you to be.

When you’re in the trenches, trying to motivate and inspire your team, these leadership quotes are the principles you’ll lean on. Your people need you to be strong, steady, and sure. You’ve got the power within you, so let it shine and lead on!

• Last Updated: May 23, 2024

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Michelin star-like guide reveals best bars around the world

Pinnacle guide revealed 37 bars on its 'pinned' list of best cocktail lounges in different parts of the world.

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Exploring luxurious bars and sipping sophisticated cocktails around the world has been made easier with a newly released guide to bars that is similar to the Michelin guide.

The Pinnacle Guide, developed by three founders — Dan Dove, Hannah Sharman-Cox and Siobhan Payne — is a recognition system of bars that assesses the cocktail scene on a global scale and evaluates venues through a rigorous application and analysis process.

The first Pinnacle Guide was released earlier in May, and the team is wrapping up its delivery of awards.

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"There are two parts to the way a bar gets judged," Dove, of London, England, told FOX Business in a phone interview. 

"First, the online application is made up of 100 questions. The bars typically take two to three weeks to complete this initial task."

The Pinnacle Guide spent two years evaluating bars during a rigorous process to name some of the best bars in the world. (The Pinnacle Guide / Fox News)

Criteria evaluated for a top spot on a bold list of bars includes sustainability, recruitment of staff, management of team members and drink programs, and environment, among others.

"It’s much more vigorous than any other system out there," said Dove, a 20-year veteran in the luxury drink industry and founder of a global bartending agency. "We’re going into much more detail on how these businesses are run."

MICHELIN-STARRED CHEF TO BRING FOOD AND FINE DINING TO NEW HEIGHTS: IN SPACE

In addition to this, food is a consideration but not a requirement for pin status.

"We did stipulate that every bar has to have at least two non-alcoholic drinks on the menu," Dove said. "We really believe in building the non-alcoholic occasion, and well-being is at the forefront of many people’s minds."

Dan Dove, Hannah Sharman-Cox and Siobhan Payne founded the Pinnacle Guide over two years ago and recently revealed their first list. (The Pinnacle Guide / Fox News)

If a bar exceeds pin components, it is judged by "very, very" secretive reviewers.

"They’re completely anonymous," Dove said. "They go through full training, sign NDAs and two-year contracts, which they can’t break for the two-year period they get signed on for."

Hundreds of reviewers are scattered across seven countries, including the U.K., the U.S. Mexico, Dubai, Spain, Singapore and Australia , and inconspicuously evaluate bars that have nominated themselves, the group said.

Once a bar is celebrated by the Pinnacle Guide, it maintains its status for a two-year period, then reapplies to be reassessed. 

Only show-stopping bars that receive three pins for both parts of the evaluation process can secure the coveted three pins all around.

One opportunity within a two-year period is provided for a bar that earns one pin in hopes of increasing its status — but it can also decrease during a reassessment.

"Nobody has yet to obtain three pins in the application process and three pins in the bar review," Dove said.

"We expect this section to have very, very few numbers globally," Dove said.

The criteria for bars to receive one, two or three pins includes staffing, management of staff, cocktails, experience and more. (The Pinnacle Guide / Fox News)

Feedback is critical to the Pinnacle Guide founders. They offer bars as much insight into their score as possible, whether they have pin status or not.

Thirty-seven bars around the world with a fresh take on atmosphere and cocktails earned at least one pin.

"The bars have had fun trying to figure out who the reviewers might be," Dove said.

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The brand is looking to expand to over 30 countries in the next 2½ years. It said it is enlisting residents in popular locations around the world to conserve a sustainable evaluation.

"We know we have proven that it works," Dove said. "The way that we set the system up is to be able to expand quickly."

The co-founders are recruiting reviewers by state and will continue to do so.

In the U.S., Dove said, he and his co-founders are recruiting reviewers by state and will continue to do so, based on the whereabouts of submitted applications.

"We’ve had such amazing people come forward," he said — "people who travel as part of their way of life and have a passion within the cocktail industry ."

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As for the newly revealed pins, bars in Louisiana, Arizona, Maine, Minneapolis and New York City have received one pin, and others in Arizona, Kentucky, Los Angeles and San Francisco have received two.

Fine point cocktail lounges like Paradiso, a well-recognized, highly awarded speakeasy bar by Giacomo Giannotti in Spain, which opened in 2015, received two pins.

After two years on the list, bars will need to reapply to be reevaluated and make the pinned list again. (The Pinnacle Guide / Fox News)

On the menu, guests can find "Enigma," a drink served from a ceramic head sliced open at the top, exposing a brain, or a "Mediterranean Treasure" poured into a seashell. Patrons are welcomed to the sensory experience through a refrigerator door.

The Pinnacle Guide announced one pin to Kwãnt Mayfair, owned by world-class bartender Erik Lorincz, in London. The menu offers cocktails topped with hickory clouds of smoke and a cracker brushed in miso distillate to emanate an umami flavor.

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While the guide taps into Michelin star prestige, Dove said there are no plans on the table for either party to work together on a combined list.

"We highly regard the Michelin guide ," he said. "It was a huge part of our inspiration."

For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle.

Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler ( December 27 1571 – November 15 1630 ) was a German Lutheran mathematician , astronomer and astrologer, and a key figure in the 17th century astronomical revolution. He is best known for his laws of planetary motion , which provided one of the foundations of Isaac Newton 's law of universal gravitation .

• 1.1 Mysterium Cosmographicum (1596)
• 1.2 De fundamentis astrologiae certioribus (1601)
• 1.3 Astronomia nova (1609)
• 1.4 Dissertatio cum Nuncio Sidereo (1610)
• 1.5 Harmonices Mundi (1618)
• 2.1 Joannis Kepleri Astronomi Opera Omnia (1858)
• 5 External links

Quotes [ edit ]

• As quoted by W. H. Auden , Louis Kronenberger , Viking Book of Aphorisms: A Personal Selection (1920) p. 98; also by Joseph Silk, The Infinite Cosmos: Questions from the Frontiers of Cosmology (2006)
• As quoted by Carl Sagan Cosmos (1980)
• In Terra inest virtus, quae Lunam del.
• Essay dedicated to the Archduke Ferdinand , as quoted by Max Caspar, Kepler (1993) Sect. II, Ch. 9, p. 110.
• As quoted by Gloria Pierre, (K)new Words: Redefine Your Communication (2005) p. 147.
• Epitaph he composed for himself a few months before he died, as quoted by Steven G. Krantz, Brian E. Blank, Calculusː Multivariable (2006) p. 126.
• Temporis filia veritas; cui me obstetricari non pudet.
• As quoted by Shafique N. Virani, The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A search for Salvation (2007) p. 28.

Mysterium Cosmographicum (1596) [ edit ]

• As translated and quoted by Karl Fink in Geschichte der Elementar-Mathematik (1890) A Brief History of Mathematics (1903) Beman, W.W. & Smith, D.E. , transl., at an unspecified page.
• Translation & quotation by staff writer (April 29, 1911) " The Discovery of Kepler's Laws ". Scientific American: Supplement 71 (1843). See p. 278.

De fundamentis astrologiae certioribus (1601) [ edit ]

• Vim coeli reserate viri: venit agnita ad usus: Ignotae videas commoda nulla rei.
• Unknown translator, from De fundamentis astrologiae certioribus , in Opera Omnia , Vol. 1, Heyder & Zimmer, 1858, p. 417-438.
• He who will please the crowd and for the sake of the most ephemeral renown will either proclaim those things which nature does not display or even will publish genuine miracles of nature without regard to deeper causes is a spiritually corrupt person… With the best of intentions I publicly speak to the crowd (which is eager for things new) on the subject of what is to come.
• Unknown translator, from De fundamentis astrologiae certioribus , ibid. , Foreword.

Astronomia nova (1609) [ edit ]

Unless otherwise noted, translations and quotations by Walter W. Bryant , Chapman, S., ed (1920). Kepler . Pioneers of Progress: Men of Science. New York, NY: Macmillan.   Full tile: Astronomia Nova ΑΙΤΙΟΛΟΓΗΤΟΣ seu physica coelestis, tradita commentariis de motibus stellae Martis ex observationibus G.V. Tychonis Brahe . Title translations: New Astronomy, Based upon Causes, or Celestial Physics, Treated by Means of Commentaries on the Motions of the Star Mars, from the Observations of Tycho Brahe, Gent ; also known as Commentaries on the Motions of Mars .

• Translation & quotation by John Freely , Before Galileo: The Birth of Modern Science in Medieval Europe (2012), Ch. 58.

Dissertatio cum Nuncio Sidereo (1610) [ edit ]

• Translated by Edward Rosen, Kepler's Conversation with Galileo's Sidereal Messenger (1965), p. 39.

Harmonices Mundi (1618) [ edit ]

• Book I, sect. XX, as translated by Aiton, Duncan and Field, American Philosophical Society (1997), p 25.
• Book III, Ch. 1 as quoted by Judith V. Field , "Astrology in Kepler's Cosmology" in Astrology, Science, and Society: Historical Essays (1987) ed. P. Curry, p. 154.
• As quoted by Judith V. Field , Kepler's Geometrical Cosmology (1988), p. 123.
• Book IV, Ch. 1, as quoted in "Kepler's Astrology"in Kepler, Four Hundred Years (1975) ed. Arthur and Peter Beer.
• Book V, Introduction.
• As quoted by David Brewster , The Martyrs of Science; or, the Lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler (1841) p. 197. Sometimes misquoted as: "It may be well to wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer."
• As quoted by Steven G. Krantz, Brian E. Blank, Calculus. Multivariable (2006) p. 126.
• Book V, Ch. 3 dates that his Third Law of Planetary Motion occurred to him, translation by E. J. Aiton, A. M. Duncan, and J. V. Field, The Harmony of the World (1997), Vol. 209, p. 411.
• Book V, Ch. 6, as quoted by Arthur Koestler , The Sleepwalkers (1959)
• Book V, Ch. 7, as quoted by Arthur Koestler , The Sleepwalkers (1959)
• As quoted in Forty Thousand Sublime and Beautiful Thoughts (1904) ed. Charles Noel Douglas, p. 845. See also Methodist Review (1873), vol. 55, pp. 187–88.

Secondary works [ edit ]

Joannis kepleri astronomi opera omnia (1858) [ edit ].

• Frisch, Vol. I, p. 31; Burtt, p. 57.
• Frisch, Vol. I, p. 238; Burtt describes this summary statement as describing Kepler's thought: [O]f a number of variant hypotheses about the same facts, that one is true which shows why facts, which in the other hypotheses remain unrelated, are as they are, i.e., which demonstrates their orderly and rational mathematical connexion. p. 54.
• Frisch, Vol. III. p. 156; Burtt, pp. 55-56.
• Frisch, Vol. V. p. 224 Cf. also Vol. I, p. 143; Burtt, p. 50.
• Frisch, Vol. VI, p. 116 & Cf. also Vol. VIII, p. 266, ff; Burtt, p. 47.
• Frisch, Vol. VIII, p. 147, ff; Burtt, p. 57.
• Frisch, Vol. VIII, p. 148; Burtt, p. 57.
• Frisch, Vol. VIII, p. 150; Burtt, p. 57.
• Vol. VIII, p. 705; Burtt, p. 58.

Disputed [ edit ]

• Google search of the second sentence, in quotes, yields a trio of 2019 books alone, most (there and in following) attributing it to Kepler—e.g., see Prof Basden's 2019 work, "The Complex Activity of Research [§10—4.1 Less-Obvious Pistic Functioning in Research "]. Foundations and Practice of Research: Adventures with Dooyeweerd's Philosophy . Advances in Research Methods (1st ed.). Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: Taylor & Francis-Routledge. ISBN 9781138720688 . Retrieved on February 25, 2020 .   (page 222).
• Attributed to Kepler in some sources (though more recent sources often attribute it to Euclid ), such as Mathematically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations edited by Carl C. Gaither and Alma E. Cavazos-Gaither (1998), p. 214 . The earliest publication located that attributes the quote to Kepler is the piece "The Mathematics of Elementary Chemistry" by Principal J. McIntosh of Fowler Union High School in California, which appeared in School Science and Mathematics, Volume VII ( 1907 ), p. 383 . Neither this nor any other source located gives a source in Kepler's writings, however, and in an earlier source, the 1888 Notes and Queries, Vol V. , it is attributed on p. 165 to Plato . Expressions that relate geometry to the divine "mind of God" include comments in the Harmonices Mundi , e.g., "Geometry is one and eternal shining in the mind of God", and "Since geometry is co-eternal with the divine mind before the birth of things, God himself served as his own model in creating the world".

Quotes about Kepler [ edit ]

A-B [ edit ]

• E. F. Apelt , Epcchen der Geschichte der Menscheit , Vol. I, p. 243 as quoted by Edwin Arthur Burtt , The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science (1925)
• W. W. Rouse Ball , A Short Account of the History of Mathematics (1888)
• Eric Temple Bell , The Development of Mathematics (1940)
• Eric Temple Bell, The Development of Mathematics (1940)
• Sir David Brewster , The Life of Sir Isaac Newton (1832)
• Walter William Bryant, Kepler (1920), p. 35 Note reference: William Gilbert 's New Philosophy about our Sublunary World or De Mundo Nostro Sublunari Philosophia Nova (1651)
• Robert Burton , The Anatomy of Melancholy (1628) Part 2, Sect. 2, pp. 239-240.
• Edwin Arthur Burtt , The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science (1925)
• Edwin Arthur Burtt, The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science (1925)
• Herbert Butterfield , The Origins of Modern Science (1949)

C-D [ edit ]

• Florian Cajori , A History of Mathematics (1893, 1919 ) 2nd edition, revised and enlarged, citing (Greeks' conic sections quote) William Whewell , History of the Inductive Sciences 3rd Ed., (1858) Vol. I, p 311.
• John L. Casti , "Correlations, Causes, and Chance," Searching for Certainty: How Scientists Predict the Future (1990).
• I. Bernard Cohen , The Triumph of Numbers: How Counting Shaped Modern Life (2005)
• Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter , Projective Geometry (1987)
• A.C. Crombie , Robert Grosssteste and the Origins of Experimental Science (1953)
• A.M. Duncan, J.V. Field, The Harmony of the World (1997), Preface, Vol.209
• A.M. Duncan, J.V. Field, ibid .

E-G [ edit ]

• R. Eucken , "Kepler als Philosoph" in Philosophische Monatshefte (1878), p. 42ff as quoted by Edwin Arthur Burtt , The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science (1925)
• John Freely , Before Galileo: The Birth of Modern Science in Medieval Europe (2012)
• Galileo Galilei , Letter to Kepler (1596), as quoted in The Story of Civilization : The Age of Reason Begins, 1558-1648 (1935) by Will Durant , p. 603
• Galileo Galilei , Letter to Kepler (Aug. 4, 1597) upon receipt of Mysterium Cosmographicum and as quoted by John Joseph Fahie, Galileo: His Life and Work (1903) pp. 39-40.
• Galileo Galilei , Letter to Kepler (1610) in gratitude for Kepler's Dissertio cum Nuncio sidereal ( Answer to the Sidereal Messenger ) after Galileo sent Kepler a copy of the Sidereal Messenger , as quoted in John Freely, Before Galileo: The Birth of Modern Science in Medieval Europe (2012)
• Galileo Galilei , Diaologo sopra i Due Massi Sistemi del Mondo (1632) as quoted in Salusbury tr. The Systeme of the World: in Four Dialogues (1661)
• David Gregory , The Elements of Astronomy, Physical and Geometrical J. Nicholson (1715) Vol.2 , p. 668
• David Gregory, ibid. , pp. 668–9
• Werner Heisenberg , Tradition in Science (1983) also published as Encounters with Einstein: And Other Essays on People, Places, and Particles

H-K [ edit ]

• Fred Hoyle on Kepler's attention to the apparent harmonics by which he deduced his planetary laws, as quoted in "Kepler's Astrology and Mysticism" by Arthur Beer in Vistas in Astronomy vol. 18 (1975).
• Edward Kasner , "Differential-Geometric Aspects of Dynamics," (1909) in The Princeton Colloquium: Lectures on Mathematics, Delivered September 15 to 17, 1909 (1913) Vol. 3, Part 1.
• Kazanas, N. (2002). Indigenous Indo-Aryans and the Rigveda: Indo-Aryan migration debate. Journal of Indo-European Studies, 30(3-4), 275-334.
• Morris Kline , Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times (1972)
• Arthur Koestler , The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe (1959, 1963)
• Arthur Koestler , The Sleepwalkers (1959)

L-M [ edit ]

• Reinhard Labenbacher, David Pengelley, Mathematical Expeditions: Chronicles by the Explorers (1999)
• Colin Maclaurin , An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries (1750), pp. 54–55
• Colin Maclaurin, ibid. , p. 55
• Lloyd Motz , Jefferson Hane Weaver, Conquering Mathematics: From Arithmetic to Calculus (1991)

N-R [ edit ]

• Wolfgang Pauli in "The Influence of Archetypal Ideas on the Scientific Theories of Kepler" in The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche (1955) by Carl Jung and Wolfgang Pauli, as translated by Priscilla Silz

• George Pólya , Mathematical Methods in Science (1977)

S-Z [ edit ]

• Carl Sagan in Cosmos (1980)
• C. Smorinsky, History of Mathematics: A Supplement (2008)
• Ian Stewart , The Mathematics of Life (2011)
• Charles Taylor , "The Geometry of Kepler and Newton," (1899) Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (1900) pp. 197-219
• James R. Voelkel, Johannes Kepler and the New Astronomy (2001) p. 117

External links [ edit ]

• An online copy of Walter W. Bryant's 1920 biography, the Free eBook of Kepler at Project Gutenberg .
• Brief biography at the University of St Andrews
• Harmonices mundi ("The Harmony of the Worlds") in fulltext facsimile at Carnegie-Mellon University
• Electronic facsimile-editions of the rare book collection at the Vienna Institute of Astronomy
• "Kepler's Somnium : Science Fiction and the Renaissance Scientist" by Gale E. Christianson
• "Kepler's Belief in Astrology" by Nicholas Kollerstrom
• "Kepler & the Music of the Spheres" by David Plant

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• 1630 deaths
• Academics from Germany
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• Astronomers from Germany
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Bill Walton's best quotes: The 8 funniest moments from 'one of a kind' broadcasting career

Legendary NBA big-man Bill Walton died at age 71 on Monday after what the NBA described as a "prolonged battle with cancer."

Immediately, tributes to Walton came pouring in from all corners of the NBA world. Players and media personalities lined up to praise him with many posting some of the best and brightest highlights of his career to social media platforms.

Many of Walton's most memorable highlights didn't come on the basketball court. They came from his 30-year broadcasting career, where his unique, off-the-wall style of calling a game always reigned supreme when calling games for CBS, NBC and ESPN. Walton was named one of the top 50 sports broadcasters of all time by the American Sportscasters Association in 2009.

"Bill Walton was a legendary player and a singular personality who genuinely cherished every experience throughout the journey of his extraordinary life," ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. "Bill often described himself as 'the luckiest guy in the world,' but anyone who had the opportunity to interact with Bill was the lucky one. He was a truly special, giving person who always made time for others.

"Bill's one-of-a-kind spirit captivated and inspired audiences during his second career as a successful broadcaster. We at ESPN extend our deepest condolences to Bill's loved ones, including the entire Walton family."

Walton had some of the wackiest moments that modern basketball broadcasts have ever seen. Here's a look at some of his best quotes and broadcast antics that will bring smiles to his fans as they mourn his death.

MORE: NBA world pays tribute to Bill Walton

Bill Walton eats cupcake with lit candle on it

Walton and Dave Pasch were color commentators on ESPN's college basketball coverage, so they had many a fun moment together. Among the most notable came when Pasch encouraged Walton to take a bit out of a cupcake with a lit candle after the duo sang "Happy Birthday" on the air.

Walton obliged, much to the delight (and horror) of Pasch. He came away from it unharmed despite putting the whole candle in his mouth and mimed as if he was going to throw the cupcake in Pasch's face.

"How about the face plant, here?" Walton said, as Pasch laughed.

Bill Walton sings 'Happy Birthday' to Phil Knight... at the zoo

Walton evidently likes to sing "Happy Birthday" to people. At the very least, he's willing to do so, as he demonstrated while celebrating Nike founder Phil Knight's 85th birthday in 2022.

The strange part of this bit? He did so at the Portland Zoo, apparently in or around the beaver habitat. That led Walton to deliver one message to his viewers after that clip aired.

"I love beavers," he said.

Bill Walton on being 'Larry Bird's valet'

Walton was calling a Pac-12 basketball game alongside Pasch in 2020 when Walton pretended momentarily he hadn't played for the Celtics. Pasch initially was confused by Walton's delivery, but the former NBA star instantly turned it into a self-disparaging joke.

"You did win Sixth Man of the Year," Pasch said of Walton's Celtics career.

"Which means I was Larry Bird's valet," Walton replied. "Which means my job was to tell Larry what time the game started."

Bill Walton explains baseball, claims he has been dead for years

If you've ever imagined what it might be like to see Bill Walton call a baseball game, you're in luck. The White Sox broadcast got him to call a game with then-play-by-play man Jason Benetti, and Walton had a fun time.

Walton started his appearance with a simplistic explanation of baseball.

"I understand that it starts, and then you play, but the offense can't touch the ball," Walton said. "And then the defense goes first. And then there's no time limits. And then you just go until somebody says, 'It's over!' Sounds very much like a [Grateful] Dead show."

As great as that was, he had an all-time exchange with Benetti that went something like this.

"I've been dead for quite a few years," Walton said.

"And we all may be by the end of the night, Benetti responded.

And here's more of Walton's foray into the world of baseball:

MORE: How Bill Walton became Grateful Dead's biggest celebrity fan

Bill Walton pretends Colorado-Oregon game is 2000 Pacers game

Walton decided to take a possession to call play-by-play in place of Pasch during one of their late-night, Pac-12 matchups in 2020. He was solid in that role, but there was one issue: he pretended he was calling a 2000 Pacers game.

As Walton referenced players like Mark Jackson, Reggie Miller and Rik Smits, Pasch chimed in to ground him.

"You don't have a future as a play-by-play guy," Pasch quipped.

Bill Walton reveals he auditioned to be 'Chewbacca'

Pasch spent a minute trying to coax Walton into answering a question about a rumor that Walton had been "in the running" to play Chewbacca. Walton revealed he had met George Lucas at a fundraiser, along with several other NBA talents, and that led Walton to audition for the role of the iconic "Star Wars" character.

He didn't get it, but he apparently had an influence on the character.

"I auditioned for Chewbacca," Walton explained. "They said, 'No, but we're gonna model the character after you.'"

Pasch noted he believed Walton, who previously explained he was in "Ghostbusters" in 1984. Few believed Walton's tale from the broadcast, but it was later revealed Walton actually did appear as an uncredited background actor.

Bill Walton explains Earth's axial tilt to Dave Pasch

Walton took time out of a UConn vs. San Diego State broadcast — which Pasch noted was a 10-point game — to explain some basic astronomical principles to Pasch. Walton detailed that the Earth's 23.5-degree axial tilt was responsible for the seasons and that the planet rotates around the sun in an elliptical pattern.

Pasch seemed annoyed that Walton wasn't paying attention to the game while also using Pasch's orange to display the run.

What was Walton's response when Pasch asked if he could eat the orange?

"No, that's the sun," Walton said. "That's what gives us our energy, our life."

Bill Walton makes sound effects for every XFL team

Pasch asked Walton on the spot to come up with sound effects for each XFL team ahead of the league's planned 2020 season. Walton obliged, creating one of the more ridiculous segments on the duo's "Pac-12 After Dark" broadcast.

After coming up with the sound effects, Walton had just one question for Pasch.

"What sport is that?"

Best of Bill Walton

Frankly, there are so many weird, unique and flat-out bizarre moments from Walton's broadcasts that it's impossible to list his greatest hits. But to get a smattering of some of his career highlights, check out the reels below: