Quotes in an Email Signature

Adding a quote to a signature is one of the most common personal touches and one of the most commonly banned by company signature policies. In personal email, a short quote can say something about the sender, and it costs nothing. In business email the trade-offs change. The quote appears on every message, including complaint responses and condolences where an upbeat line reads badly. It can be read as the company's view, which is why many policies prohibit political, religious, or contentious quotes. It adds length to every reply in a thread. And it competes with the one line most companies actually want there, such as a call to action or a tagline. A middle ground many organizations adopt is a company tagline or mission line instead of a personal quote, applied the same way to everyone, which keeps a human feel without the risk. If you do use a quote, keep it to one line, attribute it correctly, place it below the contact details and above any disclaimer, and leave it off replies, where it repeats down the thread.