Quotes

Are quotes pointless?

Do quotes stop us from thinking up profound things on our own?

Do quotes get misquoted too much?

Do quotes serve any real purpose?

Hmm, lets think about this for a second.

Have you ever quoted something or someone and then felt that tad smarter afterwards? You may have thought "hey, i'm so clever for remembering that". Have you ever been in the situation where you spend so long trying to think of the quote you would like to quote (it's usually just on the tip of your tongue) that you could have possibly thought up about 10 fairly decent quotes from your own day to day conversations? Do you ever use a quote when you feel like just driving a point home or rounding off a letter or conversation?

If you have answered yes to any of these questions then I have a challenge for you. Don't. Yes you heard me. I hate quotes, (well most of the time). Why? you ask. Well it's a matter of me thinking that in each of us is the ability to articulate ourselves in a way that no one else can. Why would you think that someone elses words can best sum up a point you want to make than your own would?

The worst kind of quotes are the kinds that get so overused that they start to morph and take on a life all of thier own.
An example of this would be "I have a dream" Now, this poinient statement was used as part of a defining speech given by Martin Luther King Jnr, calling for racial equality and an end to discrimination. I wonder if when he said it, he entertained the thought of people using it in every day conversations to describe some hairbrain idea they have come up. You know the people that do it.
Or how about one of my all time most cringe worthy quotes of "I'll be back" from terminator. Oh boy, that one really takes the cake because not only is it used and abused constantly, but people feel the need to say in in the Arnie accent. And it's usually used at a totally inappropriate time, like when someone is going to the loo half way through church or a movie.

I don't mind sayings, because sayings are meant to adapt and morph as trends, language and society change. For instance, you could say "if it aint broke, don't fix it" or "if it's not broken then you shouldn't mend it", no one could correct you because it's a saying and they both mean the same thing.
And another difference is that when you misquote something, you do stand to be corrected, nobody likes it when people misquote! Whereas with sayings you can even go so far as to make up your own. Our family favourite is "going off like buddy on cracker night" and no one would even turn thier heads.

Quotes on the other hand are not meant to morph or be made up, they are meant to stay as is forever and ever and ever as they were first pronounced. You can't put your own spin on someone elses words, you can't just decide to throw a bit of pow into a quote if you feel it needs it. You don't want to run the risk of misquoting.

So I urge you to stop quoting others and start quoting yourself, or maybe even try to start using your brain a bit more to refer to or describe things in your own words rather than someone elses.

Who knows, maybe you will be quoted one day?