"We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation."
"I am a part of all that I have met."
"Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it."So, I've been idly wondering about why the most profound-sounding statements often have no real meaning. Here's why:
Learning things is fun. Specifically, that moment when you realize that you understand something is fun - or it would be if you could pin it down. In my experience, it usually takes quite a while to get from almost understanding something to fully understanding it, and a lot of that process isn't all that entertaining.
But somewhere at the beginning, when you still only almost understand it, is the moment when you realize that you are about to understand whatever it is. At that point, well, you know what's coming next, and it's pretty exciting. That's the best place to be, and that's where meaningless quotations can take you. Meaningless quotations are great because they seem like they are describing something that is fundamentally true yet was hidden from your understanding. They make you feel like you nearly understand those secret truths.
In reality, what they are expressing is either some obvious idea that you already know, or some utter nonsense. But they work because the obscurity of their messages makes them seem like new ideas. They take you to the point of near-comprehension not by leading you to the edge of new knowledge, but by dressing up an old edge as something different.
Let's take the above quotes, which I picked pretty much at random from Google, as examples:
"We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation."So, this is using a subtle redefinition of "treachery" from its usual implication of intent, to make the statement that "people make a lot of mistakes" seem like a new idea.
"I am a part of all that I have met."To paraphrase Douglas Adams, this must be some meaning of the word "am" that I was not previously aware of. It's the same deal as the last one - the meaning of words is warped a bit to make this ("people interact with stuff") seem like a new idea. By the way, I'm not blaming whoever originally said or wrote these things. It's the people who repeat those words because they seem profound who are at fault.
"Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it."Let me just say that I find it amusing that this is my randomly-picked last quote. (By the way, this one is tricking your mind by making you agree with the obvious first statement, thus making the second statement seem new to you because it sounds kind of like it opposes the first one. (Not you specifically, but whoever thought it was a good idea to post this on the internet. (I don't think I will ever get tired of nested parentheses. :))))
2 comments:
While I agree with your basic assessment of quotes and how they might make you feel good inside simply by stating something you probably already know but making it sound more important, I think you've missed the boat altogether in your assessment of the randomly chosen quotes. Try taking them more literally...
"We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation."
This is not redefining "treachery" 'to mean "yeah, people make mistakes," it's saying that in general, when people are treacherous (make those kinds of mistakes, if you will) it's because they're weak and give in to temptation or pressure - not because they plan to be treacherous. Perhaps it's suggesting that you give a traitor a break, they didn't mean it. Or perhaps it's just saying you should give people the benefit of the doubt because they're not out to get you (even if in the end they do, in fact, get you).
"I am a part of all that I have met."
This is just saying that a person is made up of their experiences, and that they in turn have left their mark on the world. Well, maybe it's one or the other, the word choice is iffy. It's not just "people interact with stuff" - it's "people interact with stuff, and leave a bit of themselves behind."
"Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it."
Again, these 2 sentences do not say the same thing at all. "Those seeking the truth," according to this quote, are genuine, trustworthy, out to find the answer. Those claiming to have found the truth are likely big fat liars. I believe the implication is that the search for truth is "what it's all about," but in the end the full truth is unknowable. Life is about the search for the answer, not the answer. There's a quote by Reiner Knizia which goes something like "In any game the goal is to win, but it's the goal that's important, not the winning." Your random quote reminds me of that one.
I really have a tendency to over-summarize. :)
Perhaps it's suggesting that you give a traitor a break, they didn't mean it. Or perhaps it's just saying you should give people the benefit of the doubt because they're not out to get you (even if in the end they do, in fact, get you).
You're right - this is what I was calling "mistakes", and "treachery" does include them. But I think when people normally think of treachery, they are thinking of something that has been planned out, and is quite intentional.
It's not just "people interact with stuff" - it's "people interact with stuff, and leave a bit of themselves behind."
Yup, this is me over-summarizing.
Again, these 2 sentences do not say the same thing at all.
I don't think I said they did. I said they appear to say quite different, even opposing things. The trick is that both statements taken alone are completely obvious, but by juxtaposing them the second one appears to be going against your existing knowledge, and thus seems new.
It's not actually that bad of a sentiment but it still has some of that fake deepness to it, in my opinion. The Knizia quote, on the other hand, is great - most people don't understand that about games.
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