“Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.”
― Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
I can't stand it when people always post quotes of famous individuals. They seem to attribute that sense of social and moral understanding that the person being quoted holds with themselves. This is hardly true though, because just because you may agree with the quote in question, you were too stupid to be able to correctly ascertain your own thoughts to be make a unique opinion of your own, and simply copied that of another. I don't give a shit if you think it is cute or clever. Anybody can quote someone. It doesn't mean you yourself are clever. If you quote Einstein, does that make you a theoretical physicist? No. It makes you a guy who copied a theoretical physicist's opinion, and then try to pass it off as your own opinion.
Furthermore on these garbage quotes is the fact that half the time, people don't even know the true meaning behind them. You can't hardly turn a street without seeing a bogan with "Blood is thicker than water" tattooed on themselves. Yet, the message they are trying to convey is pretty much the exact opposite of that from which the author was. The full quote is "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb". So yeah, get lost, family. A fallen comrade on the battlefield is much more important to you than some genetic ties. The blood is meant to be taken literally, although I am not too sure if bogans know what literally actually means.
And don't get me started on those Marilyn Monroe quotes. In particular, the "You don't deserve me at my best if you can't stand my worst" one. What a bunch of asinine, self serving garbage. You'll often see this quote written on a girl's social network profile, often seen as a way of justifying their usually deplorable actions. I understand everybody has flaws, and everybody is going to have a bad side, and everybody is just gonna have one of those days. We all do. I do. But the common attitude in the people who use this quote is that someone should put up with you being an inconsiderate arsehole because as far as you are concerned, they are lucky to have you. Guess what? You don't deserve me, period. Everyone has the right to ditch you if your worst qualities are your most prevalent qualities. I don't care if you SOMETIMES are an amazingly nice, considerate person, or you happen to be mega-top, hello gorgeous, or whatever. because I shouldn't be expected to wade through all the bullshit to put up with your SOMETIMES good features. And you know what? Marilyn Monroe wasn't an amazing role model to begin with. She cheated on her husbands, and slept with married men. I guess that was her worst side?
Listen, I don't think quoting others is an inherently bad thing. I quote people all the time. But when a person tries to give off an air of superiority for the intelligence behind the quotes themselves, that is what grinds my gears. You are not better than me, nor more intelligent than I am, simply because you can regurgitate statements and opinions that other people have already made, without even probably understanding their true meanings or true purposes. Use your own valid thought processes for once.
xoxo *insert quotable person here*
