Mostly, I Don't Like Quotes

Sure, the previous post was nothing but Voltaire quotes, but it annoys me most of the time when people spout quotes. When you are trying to make a point or have a discussion and the other person says, "Well, Kennedy said, 'blablabla'", I see it as a way to use the propaganda technique of appeal to authority to bolster the argument by quoting something from a source they consider infallible.

I love the times when a person says, "Someone once said, "gibberish gibberish blablabla". Someone once said? Someone once said all kinds of things. I'm pretty sure that someone once said any word I have ever used, and any phrase, as well. Given that the word is actually a word. Pregumptiousness may be my own.

People like Garrison Keeler use that "someone once said" bit. It is generally delivered in a lofty tone, but I think it is bizarre. Who once said it? Someone once said, "we're going to hell in a handbasket". Hmmm, so deep and meaningful. If you said it without telling me that someone once said it, the gravitas would be conspicuously lacking.

I guess I like quotes OK when in the context of crediting the creator of the quote with insight, wit or whatever. It is when it is used to somehow grab a little undeserved value on the part of the person quoting that I get bored.

Maybe it is useful for making a point. I don't know. It usually sucks when it finds its way into the political circus. I cringe more than not, even if I am hoping that specific political person will win some points.

Someone once said, "any port in a storm", and I'm reminded of my many follies over the last five years or so and the preceding decade as well, which brings to mind the words of a great leader, John Paul Jones, "We've not yet begun to fight!!". Or something like that. Remember the Alamo. Damn the torpedoes, and as someone once said, don't take any wooden nickels.