Categories
Quotes

The World Is A Masquerade!

What is the biggest problem with the world today?  There are endless problems in the world. Too many to list, but I was thinking that it would be an intellectually challenging exercise to try to put my finger on it. A foolish endeavor you may think. Maybe. Only a fool or a Wise Man could seriously pretend to know the answer to this question.  I happen to know a wise and eccentric philosopher (Bertrand Russell) who pondered over this question and who came up with an answer that is quite remarkable. The world is a masquerade. We are run by fools and fanatics.

“The Problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people are always full of doubts.”

Bertrand Russell

The world is a masquerade. We are run by fools and fanatics

We are run by fools. The fool is grandiose (borderline annoying), confident (borderline arrogant), flamboyant (borderline tacky) and walks through life feeling absolutely certain about everything. And then you have the fool-clown who is not grandiose, not confident and not flamboyant; he is just a clown. A fool is set in his opinions and feels that he has a duty to share his way of thinking about this and that and everything important. There are 2 types of fools. The first type is the one that does not care to take counsel from others nor listen to their opinions. The second one is the one who takes counsel and opinions only from people he knows will echo his own way of thinking, shielding himself (in the process) from any kind of responsibility if things gets wary.

The fool has no fluidity of mind and is set in his ways. New opinions are rejected and opposed just because they don’t fit the accepted idea and concepts that the fool has adopted as hard truth. The fool’s arrogant certainty about everything is set in stone and even King Arthur would not be able to dislodge him from that position. The problem with the fool is that he doesn’t know enough to know that he doesn’t know about the things he thinks he knows. He hasn’t got enough self-awareness to realize that what he knows is only half the story.

“In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. ”

Erasmus.

The fanatic is not a fool because he is a true believer in his cause but just like the fool, he feels absolute and resolute certainty in his belief. The fanatic refuses to hear and contemplate opposing views. You can find fanatics in all areas of life religion politics, media, and the entertainment industry. Fanatics can be leaders or followers, they are people who indulge in a toxic concoction of self-affirming, know-it-all attitude backed up by half-knowledge; they believe they have access to absolute truth, truth so perfect that they have to impose them on everyone.

It is not what they believe that makes them fanatics, it is how they believe it – no need to provide further evidence, no need to question or doubt. They operate in an irrational and emotional manner hiding their irrationality by rehearsed arguments that have been repeated and learned over time, not refreshed updated, or put to test. The truth does not matter anymore, repetition does.

“Some things are believed because they are demonstrably true. But many other things are believed simply because they have been asserted repeatedly.”

Thomas Sowell

Hence the critical role of the media who are guilty of spreading a certain type of sensational narrative that makes people either afraid or angry. Hence the need to look for a boogeyman to vent their anger on. Fanatics are highly emotional and rigid in their thinking. The problem with this is that nothing is really certain what is true today may not be true tomorrow.

“Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position, but certainty is an absurd one.”

Voltaire.

The world is a masquerade. We are swimming in an ocean of stupidity.

According to Robert Greene what really causes human stupidity is not ignorance but half knowledge. When you are ignorant you are humble, you don’t put yourself out or volunteer to do something that you have no knowledge of. I know nothing about plumbing. Knowing that, I am not going to suddenly try to fix the plumbing in my house when the tap leaks because that would be an act of rampant stupidity. Stupidity is actions that lead to unintended consequences, stupidity can lead to economic disasters, wars, and all kind of unpleasant things.

Take the case of someone who thinks that they are pretty smart because they have read a few books and have done a few searches on the internet and on Wikipedia. Based on that initial research, that person goes into full action mode and makes important decisions having only seen half of the picture.  People who are doing this, are generally falling into confirmation bias, they are looking for the kind of information that confirms their set-in-stone-belief. Low and beholds things don’t turn out the way they expected, chaos ensues, and bad things start happening. The problem is that that person became too certain. The little bit of knowledge that they’ve done makes them think they know the answer. They get filled with excitement, certainty, and conviction and they go charging into action and the opposite of what they expected happens. They react and make things worse and more unintended consequences occur with a kind of cascading effect. And now, they find themselves swimming in tumultuous waters.

People who know enough about a subject don’t actually feel so certain about it, because they realize that the situation is more complex and therefore, they kind of tamp down the emotional surge, and enthusiasm. People who act outrageous based on their convictions are usually trying to convince themselves more than anything else. And if they can drag some unsuspected souls with them into that sea of ‘certainty’ all the better because it feels ‘safer’ to be wrong amongs the crowd than be right outside of it.

“Ideologies are substitutes for true knowledge and ideologues are always dangerous when they come to power, because a simple-minded-I-know-it-all approach is no match for the complexity of existence.”

Jordan Peterson.

Jordan Peterson has an interesting solution to help people avoid unintended consequences following stupid acts. He calls it the the death of stupid. Let’s say you are an animal, and you act stupid in the middle of the jungle. The result of your stupid act is that you die. Imagine that there is a box with a snake in it and your coffee cup is inside the box with the snake in it. Imagine you are picking up the coffee cup. Then the snake bites you and you die. Based on this, you decide that picking up the coffee cup with the snake in the box is probably not a good idea, so that stupid idea has to die instead of you. The idea is that human beings should develop several versions of themselves, several avatars. Then they should put those avatars in various simulations/scenarios to see which one of those scenarios/projections should die and which one should be given the time of day. If you are smart enough and you live your life like the Wise Man of Greece does, you should be humble enough to let your stupidity die before it kills you.

The world is a masquerade. The Wise Man is the only one that can save the day

“The only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing.”

Socrates.

According to the Wise Man of Ancient Greece, you may find the path to wisdom, if you start from a position of humility and if you accept the extent of your ignorance. A lot of us like to think of ourselves as pretty smart, rational individuals and funny too. But what if we’re wrong? What if we are just fools and fanatics completely blind to our own failings?

We should try to act more like the Wise Man of Ancient Greece. The Wise Man is humble in his knowledge, and because he knows that there are so many things that he doesn’t know he has doubts. The Wise Man understands that someone else may have knowledge that he doesn’t have, he is also able to think critically about things and will take time to look into things more deeply; and this could lead him to change his opinion on this and that. Nothing is set in stone. The Wise Man has a fluidity of mind; he is not rigid in his view and his pursuit of the truth will lead him to question everything. Be open to learn, unlearn and relearn.

And this my dear friend is your Quest.

If you wish to support my work you can purchase my book This is Your Quest online at BookLocker, from Amazon or from Barnes & Noble. The Ebook version is available on Amazon (Kindle), Barnes & Noble (Nook), Apple (iBooks) & Kobo. Check out my Amazon Author Page here or my listing on Booksradar.com

Categories
Quotes

Wake up, Dress up, Show up and Do Your Thing

Today (18th October), I wake-up, dress, and show up to celebrate my birthday. Happy birthday also to Russell, my dear husband we are sharing the same birthday. I have been on this earth for a few decades, and I am grateful for every single morning when I got to wake up and do my thing. My loyal readers would know that I rarely talk about myself in my writing, because, who cares, really?! I write to educate, entertain, and inspire. I am not here to impress people and seek instant fame and fortune (a fate only reserved for a tiny portion of writers) but to impact people. The words I write are more important than the person who is writing them; but if you want to know about me, you just have to read my writing and you will catch a little bit of my soul.

I like my birthdays to be low-key, but because this is a special birthday, I decided to celebrate me through all my writings. Today is another day when I decided to wake up, dress up, show up and shine my light as far and as bright as I can.

Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save. They just stand there shining.

Anne Lamott

Every day I wake up dress-up, show up. I am passionate about life and about my writing.

Wake up, dress up, show up, run and do your thing. Photo by Thierry Nikolaeff @terydiving featuring Joanne Reed. Dress by Nathalie Pezzotta-Davranche @lartisanecouture. There are no tricks on this picture just me, a scuba diver photographer and an amazing dress.

I am passionate about life and about my writing. I like to describe myself as a law-abiding-free-spirited-rebel who just happen to write about this and that. I didn’t decide to be a writer I discovered I was one. There is an intimate relationship between the writer and the reader. The writer makes the first move and takes the leap of faith, releasing their inner markings to the world for all to see. There is a great risk when it comes to writing and releasing content freely and openly. Content can be received graciously and given applause, simply dismembered, torn apart by readers and reviewers, or just completely ignored and left to rot in the ether.

The likelihood that a word, sentence, perhaps a book, or a phrase can bring about a change in readers’ life or implant a seed that may nurture and grow into a reformative idea is an impulse that excites me as a writer. Writers can change the world for their words know no boundary. It reaches across borders and ages.

We should not underestimate the writers’ role in society. From the beginning of time, knowledge was shared from generation to generation thanks to storytellers who used their artistry to pass on information, knowledge, and wisdom to their community. Well-chosen words can breathe hope into us when our spirits are broken, revive us when our bodies are weary, lift our spirit up when we lose ourselves in an ocean of despair, redeem the wrong we feel, and make us stronger than we know.

A poet’s work is to name the unnamable, to point to fraud, to start arguments, to shape the world, and stop doing it going to sleep. Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest place in human society and in the human spirit, where I go to find out not absolute truth, but the truth of the tale.

Salman Rushdie

For me, writing is a search for something meaningful, a longing to create something of value; to have an impact. Whether people admit it or not, most of us have a desire to make a difference, to have an impact or some level of influence on others. It is part of human nature, and it is admirable because it implies that we want to live a life that is bigger than us and our immediate entourage. We want to leave something of value after we leave, we want to leave a legacy.

To be or not to be impactful? You may find this to be an odd question to ask, but some people are content with a quiet life away from the hustle and bustle. They are happy the way things are and don’t have any inclination to change things and even less inclination to change the world, and that is OK.

You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.

Charles Bukowski

Sadhguru (my favorite yogi, philosopher, sage) has an interesting point of view on this issue. He believes that every one of us is free to capture as much life as we want. If you capture a substantial amount of life, you will become a significant presence, you will radiate, and that presence will draw people to you. It is not the knowledge you accumulated in your head, nor the social status, the successes nor the muscle you built upon your body. It is just how much life emanates from you. If you have the opportunity to go out in the world and do something impactful. Good, go out there and be impactful. But if not, don’t worry. Concentrate on being happy and content. The world needs more of these types of people.

An oak tree sitting outside is not trying to create a significant impact on anyone. By just sitting there in a calm and assured state of being, the oak tree by its mere presence is being impactful without even trying. If someone just happened to walk past that oak tree on a hot and sunny day, wishing to rest and cool down for a little while, that person will find refuge under the oak tree and will appreciate its presence and the shade it can offer on that day, at that particular time. The oak tree has had an impact on that person, just by being there.

Every day, I wake up, dress up, show up. I am a constant work-in-progress.

Wake up, dress up, show up. Photo by Thierry Nikolaeff@terydiving featuring Joanne Reed. Dress by Nathalie Pezzotta-Davranche @lartisanecouture. There are no tricks on this picture just me, a scuba diver photographer and an amazing dress.

Something you should know about me is that I don’t like when people try to put me in a box and stick a label on it before they even get the chance to know me. I am the sum total of my genetics, my upbringing, but also the books I read, the countries I traveled to, the ups and downs that came on my path. I can be reliable and predictable and also spontaneous and unpredictable. I respect people and choose not to worship them. I am a giver, but I need to give myself enough time and space to advance my interests too. Today I can decide to be as exuberant and as colorful as I want and tomorrow, I can decide to be as dull as the grey sky if I feel like it. I don’t gossip but I read and write. I am all of that and more and I am a constant work-in-progress. So please don’t put a label on me.

Something else you should know about me is that I am nice and lovely, but I can be dangerous too.

“The most dangerous person is the one who observes, listens, thinks.”

Bruce Lee

I have always been a curious person in nature, and I like going down the path less traveled by, the one taken by critical thinkers. Going down that road requires some fluidity of mind, some discipline, and the will to get to the truth of the matter rather than the urge to be righteous no matter what. Before you assume, learn the fact. Before you judge, understand why. Before you hurt someone, feel. Before you speak, think. Before you talk, listen. If you want something from someone express yourself clearly. People are not mind-readers. If you use the right words, the right tone of voice, and the right body language, you are increasing your chance of having your wishes and aspirations in reality. I observe, I listen, I think, and I act accordingly. That makes me (according to Bruce Lee) a dangerous person.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

If I had to write my memoir one day, I would call it – Work-In-Progress. That is how I see myself. Talking about work. For a lot of people, work is just something they have to do to earn a living, put a roof over their head, pay their bills, and put food on the table. For the lucky ones (a small minority) work is their passion. Who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to turn their passion into their work? For some people finding their passion is easy, they were born knowing what it was; what is less easy is to get started and to do it consistently.

[Just in case you are wondering – I have no intention of writing my memoir, because who cares, really?! But I am totally committed to continue writing and blogging about this and that and I will try my best to continue to inspire, entertain and unveil for you some interesting stories.]

But I digress, for other people finding their passion is not so obvious. The problem is that a lot of people believe that their passion is hiding somewhere, maybe behind a tree or underneath a rock. The truth is that our passion comes first from doing things, and then doing them right. We should get into the habit of injecting passion into all the things that we do. If we do this consistently, a time will come when something stands out above all the other things, and that is the very thing that we should devote more time to doing passionately. That is all there to it, just do it. Work it! But what if you have no passion to create anything? In that case, the only thing you have to do is to listen to the philosopher Carl Jung.

If you have nothing at all to create, then perhaps you create yourself. To give style to one’s character is a great and rare art.

Carl Jung.

How about turning yourself into a work of art? Maybe the healthiest person you could be? Or maybe a deep philosophical thinker? And when you got it, flaunt it.

Wake up, dress up, show up. Photo by Thierry Nikolaeff @terydiving featuring Joanne Reed. Dress by Nathalie Pezzotta-Davranche @lartisanecouture. There are no tricks on this picture just me, a scuba diver photographer and an amazing dress.

Consider making your life a work of art. You have yourself to begin with and a time of uncertain duration to work on it. You do not have to be who you are, even though you may be quite content with who and what you are; it will not be hard for you to think of something greater than you might become; it need not be something spectacular or even something that will attract any notice from others. What it will be is a kink of excellence that you project for yourself and then attain. Something you can look at with honest self-appraisal and be proud of. Make your life a work of art!

Richard Taylor

I think of myself as Work-In-Progress. I work hard, perspire a lot during the process. I cry many tears along the way, get deflated when the outcome doesn’t match the input of energy I invested in the project, but I made it my Quest to make my life a work of art. If you are struggling to find your passion, then you should consider Goddess Athena’s advice – How to find your passion .

When you glance over my work, you are catching a glimpse of my soul. I march to my own beat, and wildly dance to my own rhythm, as I turn my passion into my work.

Make your life a wort of art.

Personal Note

DDI Chat – Personal Growth – One-to-one Chat with Joanne Reed

In addition to publishing my articles on my website, I have also been publishing on Medium. I have been working closely for the past months with Data-Driven Investor (DDI) Publication.  DDI has recently launched a new marketplace/platform where people can book a paid one-to-one session with an expert of their choice.  DDI asked me to join their panel of advisors/experts in the Leadership, Coaching, and Personal Growth category.  Here is my profile. If you wish to book a one-to-one chat with me you can do so on this platform.

For more on this subject you can purchase my book This is Your Quest online at BookLocker, from Amazon or from Barnes & Noble.  The Ebook version is available on Amazon (Kindle), Barnes & Noble (Nook), Apple (iBooks) & Kobo. Check out my Amazon Author Page here or my listing on Booksradar.com

Categories
Quotes

Do Not Underestimate the Writers’ Role in Society.

We should not underestimate the writers’ role in society. From the beginning of time, knowledge was shared from generation to generation thanks to storytellers who used their artistry to pass on information, knowledge, and wisdom to their community. Writers start writing in solitude but once the work is done writers wish for their words to be read and shared with the public at large.

A book is not finished until it has been read

Anne Proulx

Getting attention from the public is what authors are craving for, not just to shine a light on themselves and their work, but to share some meaningful and impactful words with their audience. Well-chosen words breathe hope into us when our spirits are broken, revive us when our bodies are weary, lift our spirit up when we lose ourselves in an ocean of despair, redeem the wrong we feel, and make us stronger than we know.

Do not underestimate the importance of writing. Writers write because they contribute to society.

Do not underestimate the writers’ role in society. Photo by user 31947721 via freepik.com

The world is full of people who make a valuable and essential contribution to society. There is no point in me listing them here because you know who those people are, and the list can never be exhaustive. But taking aside those people, I would like to highlight the importance that writers have in society.

[Full disclosure: Please note that I am writing this article with a totally bias outlook and I have a personal interest in this subject matter].

Do not underestimate the writer’s role in society, because writers bring to the world something that no one else can… they shape the world. Writers have the power through their words to educate, heal and illuminate the mind.

Joanne Reed

The only people who see the whole picture are the ones who can step outside the frame; writers love stepping outside their comfort zone and outside the frame to get a new vantage point. Salman Rushie articulates this very well, so I will hand this point over to him.

A poet’s work is to name the unnameable, to point to fraud, to start arguments, to shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.

Writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things that go in the world uncertainty, doubts, dreams, love, deception … that go on, slipping like sand through our fingers.

To understand just one life, you have to swallow the world.

Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest place in human society and in the human spirit, where I go to find not absolute truth, but the truth of the tale, of the imagination of the heart.

Salman Rushdie

Why do writers write and what is their role in society

Do not underestimate the writers’ role in society. Photo by user 31947721 via freepik.com

I didn’t decide to become a writer, I discovered I was one because of a mysterious voice that pushed me to put my thoughts on paper and turn those thoughts into a manuscript, that turned into a book and then, as if it wasn’t enough to satiate my appetite for sharing my thoughts, I decided to become a blogger and share my thoughts on a regular basis with whoever could spare a minute or two to stop by the website and engage with my writing. I write to educate, entertain and inspire.

Every writer has their own unique narrative behind the reasons why they write. One day they decide to sit at their desk and write a piece to be shared with the public. By typing frantically on their laptop they are taking a leap of faith deciding to enter the literary arena, not knowing what will be waiting for them once they step foot inside. Will the readers be gracious or vicious? Picture Russell Crowe in the movie Gladiator entering the arena for the first fight.

According to Dr. Lawrence R. Samuel (Ph.D. Psychology), the psychology behind the pursuit of literary life is not precisely clear. With rejection and criticism so much part of the literary experience and the fact that the income of the average American writer hovers around the poverty line, one has to wonder if writers have a streak of masochism in their genetic makeup to choose it as their profession. Why would anyone consent to the emotional, financial, spiritual, and even physical contortions that are necessary in order to lead a writer’s life?

Why do writers write? For posterity, money, legacy or some other reasons? All of the above and some other reasons too. Writers and storytellers write because there are passionate about writing and because they have something to say to the world.

Sharing. At a basic level, writing is about someone sharing something with someone else, making connection a key component of the pursuit. The possibility that a book can be deeply moving or at least interesting and informative to a reader is a prime motivation for writers to keep writing.

Creativity. Through their work writers have the potential of having a bond with far more people than they can in real life, a perspective that recast writing from its accepted view as a solitary and lonely exercise. From an expression of individual creativity, it shifts to a builder of relationships.

Liberation. Writing is a liberating force and something that is instrumental in allowing writers to be all they can be.

Therapy. Writing can also serve as a therapeutic release and many authors find their profession to be an ideal means of maintaining a sense of psychological well-being.

Meaning. Writing is a search for something meaningful, a longing to create something of value; to have an impact. There is an intimate relationship between the writer and the reader. The writer makes the first move and takes the first leap of faith, releasing their inner makings to the world for all to see. There is a great risk when it comes to writing, releasing content freely and openly. Content can be received graciously and given applause or simply dismembered and torn apart by readers and reviewers. Writing is a journey with its unique ups and downs.

Exploration. Writing takes you out of your comfort zone. It is the push, the striving, the discomfort. Writers write because it pushed them beyond the barriers of everyday existence into a world of opportunity, an infinite variety of maybes and what-ifs. A vast plain of words that might describe the world in which we live. For a writer, no two days are the same. The path may not always be smooth and predictable, but there are always new sights to see. There is always more to explore. Like any great journey, writing is full of ups and downs. Sometimes it feels like a roller coaster, other times it is like riding a donkey. It is an isolated but far from lonely experience. With our words and fellow travelers/readers to keep us company, adventure lurks around every corner. Writing can never be a waste of time because it takes you to places you would never go.

Do not underestimate the writer’s role in society, because writers bring to the world something that no one else can… they shape the world. Writers have the power through their words to educate, heal and illuminate the mind.

Joanne Reed

Personal Note

DDI Chat – Personal Growth – One-to-one Chat with Joanne Reed

In addition to publishing my articles on my website, I have also been publishing on Medium. I have been working closely for the past months with Data-Driven Investor (DDI) Publication.  DDI has recently launched a new marketplace/platform where people can book a paid one-to-one session with an expert of their choice.  DDI asked me to join their panel of advisors/experts in the Leadership, Coaching, and Personal Growth category.  Here is my profile. If you wish to book a one-to-one chat with me you can do so on this platform.

For more on this subject you can purchase my book This is Your Quest online at BookLocker, from Amazon or from Barnes & Noble.  The Ebook version is available on Amazon (Kindle), Barnes & Noble (Nook), Apple (iBooks) & Kobo. Check out my Amazon Author Page here or my listing on Booksradar.com

Categories
Quotes

“Luke, I am your Father” and Other Famous Misquotes

“Luke, I am your Father” and Other Famous Misquotes

A good quote can change the way you see your life, can give you boost when you need it, can act like a friend when you need one. Famous people’s wise words have traveled through history, some have forever been engraved in our collective memory, but many of the quotes we associate with a specific celebrity, even the famous, “Luke, I am your father,” may not be accurate at all!

Don’t believe everything you read. Faulty memories, promiscuous copying, Chinese whispers, inaccuracies, or misinterpretations in translations, have left many quotes attributed to the wrong author or as inventions of other writers with plenty of time to hone their prose. From Einstein to Darth Vader, this issue concerns the greatest philosophers as well as heroes of pop culture.

For example, did you know that the famous line “Luke, I am your father” never appeared in the Star Wars script? And once you stumble across a few of these bogus quotations, you can’t stop finding more.

Here are 18 famous misquotes that everyone has heard at least once, but which are wrong or mis-attributed. Check for yourself if you know who the authors of these famous misquotes really are!

1.  “The end justifies the means.”

“The end justifies the means” is often attributed to Nicolas Machiavelli’s The Prince. However, although Machiavelli – an Italian philosopher, writer, and politician – expressed similar thoughts in his writings, this expression does not come from him. The supposed origin of this phrase is believed to come from the cycle of poetic epistles, Heroes, by the ancient Roman poet Ovid. It is also thought that this quotation could belong to the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, or to the founder of the Jesuit order, Ignacio de Loyola.

2.  “It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it.”

auh”It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it.”

Frequently attributed to Spock, or Leonard McCoy, from the original series of Star Trek, but this phrase was never once uttered in any episode. A similar phrase “not life as we know it” is spoken by Spock in the season one episode titled “The Devil in the Dark”. The spurious phrase – sung rather than spoken by Spock – originated in the 1987 novelty song “Star Trekkin” by The Firm. Spock’s other oft misquoted line from the same song is “It’s worse than that, he’s dead, Jim!”

3.  “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Throughout his life the political and public figure, Mahatma Gandhi, uttered many sentences of profound wisdom, this one is not his own. Perhaps he expressed similar thoughts, but Gandhi died in 1948, and the first mention of this phrase in the form we know it appeared only in 1974, in the book The Love Principles, written by teacher Arleen Lorrans.

4.  “Money is the root of all evil.”

Actually, the quote, “money is the root of all evil” is incorrect. The origin of this expression comes from the Bible, but the exact phrase can be found in the 1 Timothy, and has a slightly different meaning, translating more like: “For the love of money is the root of all evil”. Thus, this famous phrase is only partially complete, but it is not an exact quotation from it.

5.  “Luke, I am your father.”

authorjoannereed.net”Luke, I am your Father”

That’s right! The “Luke, I am your father” quote, one of the most famous sentences of Star Wars and probably of the history of cinema is, unfortunately, part of our list of “I never said that”! This is one of the cases where an incorrect quote has become more popular than the original one. In fact, Darth Vader didn’t say it like that. He said, “No, I am your father.”

6.  “Houston, we have a problem.”

“Houston, we have a problem.”

In the Apollo 13 movie about this mission, we hear Tom Hanks – playing Apollo 13 commander, Jim Lovell – say “Houston, we have a problem.” Most of us think this sentence was actually spoken by Commander Lovell, but the official NASA chronology shows it was fellow astronaut Jack Swigert, who used the almost identical words “Houston, we’ve had a problem. We’ve had a main B bus undervolt.”

7.  “Sometimes a cigar is nothing but a cigar.”

“Sometimes a cigar is nothing but a cigar” is frequently attributed to the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, but there is no confirmation of its origin. The first mention of this sentence appeared in the 1950s, more than a dozen years after Freud’s death.

8.  “Let them eat cake”

“Let them eat cake”

“Let them eat cake” is the traditional translation of the French phrase “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.” Demonstrating a significant disregard for the peasants predicament during a famine, the quote was first attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of the then King, Louis XVI. The year was 1789, the year of the French Revolution, and was probably Fakenews as there is no reliable record of her actually having said it.

9.  “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

“Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This misquote hearkens back to the British Lord Acton, a 19th-century English historian who was commenting about tyrannical monarchs (Caesar, Henry VIII, Napoleon, various Russian tsars, etc.). Lord Acton actually wrote: “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”

10. “And you, my son?”

Some people mistakenly think “And you, my son” were Julius Caesar’s last words to his murderer, Marcus Brutus. However, this is just a quote from William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Moreover, the very meaning of this expression is also often misinterpreted, for it is mistakenly thought to be an expression of surprise, when in fact the real meaning was different, meaning “You shall be next.”

11.  “Beam me up, Scotty”

“Beam me up, Scotty”

“Beam me up, Scotty, another famous misquote from Star Trek, this time from Captain James T. Kirk, also known as William Shatner. Just like “Spock’s most famous lines, this was never said during the run of the original Star Trek series. A variation of this quote “Beam us up, Scotty” made an appearance in Star Trek: The Animated Series and the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home included the closest other variation: “Scotty, beam me up.” James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty, chose “Beam me up, Scotty” as the title of his 1996 autobiography.

12.  “The eyes are the mirror of the soul.”

“The eyes are the mirror of the soul.” This famous misquote is often attributed to the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, but in fact it is a Latin proverb that has been translated into many languages. Its true author is unknown. It’s also a song title by Chris de Burgh.

13.  “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

This quote has been attributed to several sources, including Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain. It may have first appeared in Rita Mae Brown’s book, Sudden Death, published in January 1983.

14.  “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

This phrase, widely cited as a Nelson Mandela quote, was actually written by Marianne Williamson – author, self-help guru, and spiritual advisor to Oprah – from her best-selling 1992 self-help book, A Return to Love. If you got this wrong you’re in good company, In 1998, the New York Times reported that Hillary Clinton, astronaut Mae C. Jemison, and former Spelman College president Johnnetta B. Cole had all misattributed Williamson’s “deepest fear” passage during graduation speeches — to Nelson Mandela.

15.  “Two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity.”

“Two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity.” This expression, which has become very popular, is often attributed to Albert Einstein, and sometimes to the American musician Frank Zappa. In fact, this expression belongs to Harlan Ellison, an American writer of science fiction novels.

16. “Bikinis, as well as being empowering, they are just so darn comfortable and practical – at the beach or for fighting dinosaurs.”

“Bikini’s .. practical on the beach or for fighting dinosaurs.”

Raquel Welch’s fur bikini publicity still for the 1966 movie “One Million Years B.C.” raised her stature as a leading sex symbol of the era. The photograph became something of a cultural phenomenon and arguably did better than the movie itself. As comfortable as Ms. Welch appears in that bikini, there is no record of her actually recommending her swimwear for those dual purposes.

17.  “Don’t worry, be happy.”

Many of us think the author of the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” is Bob Marley – there are versions of the song on Youtube with Bob Marley’s picture on the upload. But, the song was first written and performed by musician Bobby McFerrin seven years after Bob Marley’s death in 1988; the same year, the song became a hit, remaining at the top of the charts for two weeks. Even though the song was from the 1980’s, the expression itself was often used on motivational posters and postcards since the 1960s.

18.  “I may be drunk, Bessie, but you are ugly, and tomorrow I shall be sober.”

Some say that when a member of the Labour Party, Bessie Braddock, accused Winston Churchill of being drunk, he responded with this very ingenious insult. However, there is no evidence that he actually owned that line. Moreover, this scathing line has often been attributed to other famous people of the time.

19.  “640 KB of memory should be enough for anyone.”

“640 KB of memory should be enough for anyone.”

The sentence, “640 KB of memory should be enough for anyone,” is believed to have been uttered by Bill Gates in 1981. However, he denied it: “I have said some stupid things and made some mistakes in my life, but this was not one of them. No one in the computer world would ever say that there’s enough memory.”

And that’s not the only misattributed phrase, “Be nice to nerds, because you might end up working for one.” In fact, Bill Gates never said that either.

So, which one of these quotes is your favorite? Do you know any others, right or wrong, that you think are universal and legendary? Leave a message in the comments, and don’t hesitate to share this article with your friends and family! And don’t forget, don’t believe everything you read!


If you liked this post you can follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook, or you may also like:

For more on this subject you can purchase my book This is Your Quest online at BookLocker, from Amazon or from Barnes & Noble.  The Ebook version is available on Amazon (Kindle), Barnes & Noble (Nook), Apple (iBooks) & Kobo. Check out my Amazon Author Page here or my listing on Booksradar.com.

Categories
Quotes

Experience teaches only the teachable

Experience teaches only the teachable

The most overrated skill is to never make a mistake. The most underrated skill is to never repeat one. We all make mistakes and we should learn from them, but when people say they learn from their mistakes it’s sometimes said as if it’s an immutable law, like gravity or thermodynamics. Mistakes are only a chance to learn, they do not guarantee any lessons or skills; mistakes, or experience teaches only the teachable.

The fact that we are slow to learn from mistakes has been repeated in different form, over and over:

“Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it.”

George Santayana

“We learn from history that we do not learn from history.”

George Bernard Shaw

“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.”

Aldous Huxley

“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.”

George Orwell
Experience teaches only the teachable

Without the ability to recognize mistakes, somehow accept them, then spark a legitimate change, we are doomed to repeat them perpetually. There is a better chance that experiences, or mistakes, will have value in the future when whatever went wrong is studied honestly and openly, including asking what could be stopping me from learning;repressing mistakes because they’re uncomfortable, shifting blame, or learning the lesson on a logical level but lacking the self-discipline to control the same impulse the next time it arises?

When it comes to thought and behavioral patterns, the combination of self-awareness and self-discipline is often necessary for the lesson to take root. People who are lacking these are doomed to repeat history.


If you liked this post you can follow me on Instagram, Pinterest or Facebook, or you may also like:

For more on this subject you can purchase my book This is Your Quest online at BookLocker, from Amazon or from Barnes & Noble.  The Ebook version is available on Amazon (Kindle), Barnes & Noble (Nook), Apple (iBooks) & Kobo. Check out my Amazon Author Page here or my listing on Booksradar.com.

Categories
Quotes

They always say time changes things

They always say time changes things

Alongside Picasso, Andy Warhol is probably one of the most recognized twentieth-century artists. Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, avant-garde filmmaker, record producer, author, and public figure known for his membership in bohemian social circles. Warhol is perhaps best known for his role – a central figure – in the movement known as Pop Art. What Pop Art is, at least for Warhol, was the exploration of the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture, or the concept of using mass-produced commercial goods in design.

Warhol’s birth date was never recorded at a hospital, he liked to change his birthday and makeup stories about his youth when doing interviews. Similarly, his name wasn’t Warhol, but Warhola; on one of his first jobs his name in the credits was misspelled but he liked it, and it stuck.

Andy Warhol changed the art world; he was the most significant figure in Pop Art and responsible for its rise. Warhol also changed art techniques; he popularized silk-screening as an artistic process. In fact, Warhol was a different kind of artist altogether. Whereas many artists focus entirely on their art with no interest in fame or fortune, Warhol wanted to be rich and famous, and succeeded in doing so.

Andy Warhol was all about change, but its his quote below that really captures the essence of change.

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself”

Andy Warhol

Thinking that time will change something is just to cling to it and get lost in its torments; time just passes and doesn’t change anything. The only thing that changes is the hour, the date and the year. It is up to each one of us to change and to want to change, to grab the bull by the horns and move forward and arm ourselves with experience and change what was wrong and move in the direction that leads us to success, or failure.

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself


If you liked this post you can follow me on Instagram, Pinterest or Facebook, or you may also like:

For more on this subject you can purchase my book This is Your Quest online at BookLocker, from Amazon or from Barnes & Noble.  The Ebook version is available on Amazon (Kindle), Barnes & Noble (Nook), Apple (iBooks) & Kobo. Check out my Amazon Author Page here or my listing on Booksradar.com.

Categories
Quotes

Quote of the day, Giving Up

Giving up

Ever had trouble leaving an unhappy situation because you didn’t want to be a quitter? I understand. Everyone hates being called a quitter. We’ve all read quotes about giving up and are told persistently to never give up, no-pain no-gain, and a whole lot of other motivational mantras. But, there’s a big difference between giving up and knowing when to stop.

There’s a difference between giving up and knowing when you’ve had enough

Knowing when you’ve had enough

Giving up has negative connotations, knowing when you’ve had enough has positive. Giving up means that you have lost hope and trust in yourself. Giving up lowers your self-confidence which is a really bad quality. But knowing when you’ve had enough is understanding that the current situation is not what you want, or not heading in a direction that you want to go. Knowing when you’ve had enough does not mean losing hope or trust in yourself, instead, it increases your self-confidence and your decision-making qualities.

There is a big difference between giving up and knowing when you’ve had enough. Giving up means selling yourself short. It means allowing fear and struggle to limit your opportunities and keep you stuck. Knowing when you’ve had enough means freeing yourself from something that is no longer serving you. Giving up reduces your life. Knowing when you’ve had enough expands it. Giving up is imprisoning. Knowing when you’ve had enough is liberation. Giving up is self-defeat. Knowing when you’ve had enough is self-care.

Don’t simply think you have had enough you, make sure of it in your heart. When comparing the difference between these options understand what is good and what is bad.


If you liked this post you can follow me on Instagram, Pinterest or Facebook, or you may also like:

For more on this subject you can purchase my book This is Your Quest online at BookLocker, from Amazon or from Barnes & Noble.  The Ebook version is available on Amazon (Kindle), Barnes & Noble (Nook), Apple (iBooks) & Kobo. Check out my Amazon Author Page here or my listing on Booksradar.com.