Quotable Quotes

Confession: I am fascinated by quotes.

All sorts of them.

Funny, charming, point-blank, in-your-face, religious, everything and anything in between.

Quotes summarize profound ideas into crisp, memorable sentences.

They provide evidence and different perspectives on what I am trying to say.

Like this one which fits like a glove on the topic at hand:

According to psychologist Dr. Jonathan Felder, those who are naturally inclined towards motivational quotes tend to find them more impactful.

This connection goes deeper than the words themselves, as these individuals view the quotes as beacons of guidance, leading them toward their goals.

I don’t know about beacons or goals, but it sure looks like I am one of those types. 😃 

I think my fascination with these quotations began in the 1970s when I was a regular reader of the old Readers’ Digest magazine.

I remember diving into the Quotable Quotes page, Drama in Real Life, Laughter the Best Medicine, and Book Section first. The rest I would follow up with later.

Today, the tides have changed. I hardly read the Digest anymore.

Instead, I have a handy folder of quotes in my Feedly news aggregator to keep me updated on the fly.

Which is how I came across this particularly intriguing quote:

It had never crossed my mind before.

A little digging yielded the fact that Ms. Phillips is an American advice columnist who has been writing for the Dear Abby advice column for the past 22 years.

Speaking of which, it was Jeanne’s mother who had started the column back in 1956, under the pen name Abigail Van Buren.

Interesting to say the least.

Indulge me for a moment.

I've noticed that as I get older, I'm increasingly realizing that while there are many advancements in the world today - in longevity, career prospects, technological progress, etc., there are also other important aspects of life that seem to remain stagnant or even worsened.

That seems diabolical.

There seems to be little joy in life, people look tired, at their wit’s end for one thing or another.

Which reminds me of this dark but true excerpt:

There is a lot that I would like to get off my chest but I’ll limit myself to three subjects that trouble me more than I'd care to admit.

On Good Governance:

“I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.” - Charles De Gaulle

Looking at the state of the world today, and especially in my own country, it sure seems as if the shit has truly hit the fan.

We have been going around in circles for the past 25 years. It’s no surprise we haven’t made real progress. What we’ve done is mostly make superficial changes that just cover up the flaws in the system.

De Gaulle was right.

This is why politicians are a lot like diapers, they should be changed frequently, and for the same reasons.

On Education:

"In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards." - Mark Twain

Where I live, generally, school boards don’t have much of a say in education. They are merely rubber stamps for approval.

Instead, we have successfully relegated those crucial tasks to thick-headed, small-minded politicians with an overly fundamentalist religious stance.

Parents and guardians are largely left out of the education process of their own children for good measure.

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.

What we have instead is the systematic indoctrination of young minds which in turn churns out more of the same type of leaders for the future - narrow-minded, living under the proverbial coconut shell, unexposed, unable to think independently, and ultimately, useless.

On Success:

"To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered." - Voltaire

If I understand Voltaire accurately, this implies that one must conform and compromise intelligence for the prevailing foolishness in the world.

This is particularly true when dealing with large organizations led by those resistant to change.

I was part of two such organizations for a large part of my working life.

One was open to change. Because it had to. The nature of the business was changing. So the board made the difficult decision to make the necessary changes to survive and flourish.

The other remained resistant to change, even though the statistics and research showed otherwise.

This resistance often stems from deeply ingrained culture and norms, which obstruct the adoption of new methods, be it in processes, leadership, or structures.

It is a stubborn refusal to acknowledge the realities of the day.

It indicates bad leadership.

There is little humility. But a lot of arrogance.

I left both - for similar and different reasons. 😅 

Which in turn brings me back to “All The World’s A Cage. 

It seems like what Jeanne Philipps wrote in her column stands true.

All the world’s a cage.

We are all trapped - by incompetence, bad leadership, a severe lack of wisdom, and largely forgotten to be human.

Keeping the status quo would be paying too steep a price.

If Abigail Van Buren were to receive this post from me, I wonder what she would have to say.

Trivia:

Till next time.

Jude

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