One of the most emphatic ways to "hook" a reader (DBQs) is with a dynamic, and pertinent quotation.  I am going to list some here and ASSIGN TO YOU SOME TO LOOK FOR.

 

John F. Kennedy:  "If not us who? If not now, when? 

Mark Twain: "The more I learn about peple the more I like bmy dog"

John F. Kennedy: Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try."

John Quincy Adams: "If your actions inspire othes to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."

Martin Luther Kiing: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." 

Thucydides:  "The secret of happiness is freedom.  The secret of freedom is courage. "

T. Roosevelt:  "We must dare to be great; and, we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage."

Winston Churchill: Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision."

Eleanor Roosevelt:  "Women are like tea bags.  You don't know how strong they can be until you put them in hot water."

FDR: "We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future."

General George Patton:  "Always do more than is required of you."

Henry Ford: "Nothing is particulary hard if you divide it into small jobs."

Harry Truman: " If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

President Obama: "Money is not the answer. But it makes a difference. "

Thomas Edison: "I haven't failed.  I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Margaret Thatcher: " Pennies do not come from heaven.  They have to be earned here on earth."

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

Thomas Jefferson:  "One man with courage is a majority."

Thomas Jefferson:  "That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves."

Millard Fillmore:  "It is not strange to mistake change for progress. "

Benjamin Harrison:  "We Americans have no commission from God to police the world. "

Theodore Roosevelt:  "The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who does nothing."

Calvin Coolidge:  "The business of America is business."

FDR:  "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. "

Reagan:  "America is too great for small dreams."

Clinton:  "There is nothing wrong in America that can't be fixed by what's right in America."

Truman:  "The government cannot stop the spread of an idea by passing a law against it."

Lincoln:  "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

Thatcher:  "Being powerful is like being a lady.  If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."

Euripedes:  "When one with honeyed words but evil mind persuades the mob, great woes befall the state."

Herman Melville:  "It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."

T. Roosevelt:  "It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."

Winnie the Pooh:  "Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."