Topic: Quotes we disagree with

[Jeremy's Sea]

There are too many to choose from, but "Everything happens for a reason" is the first to come to mind. I absolutely HATE it when people say that. Especially after something truly horrible happens. What a moronic, dickish thing to say.

+2

Here's a quote I like though: Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that, I'll be over here, going through your stuff. - Jack Handey

[jmars]

 

I love Jack Handey. I had a book of his quotes. It got me through high school, laughing.

My favorite right now is, "The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face." As a parent and a teacher, I appreciate this quote so much more these days.

[Soldier of FORTRAN]

"Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

Nope.  It's a nonsense statement like 'everything happens for a reason.'

There are too many to choose from, but "Everything happens for a reason" is the first to come to mind. I absolutely HATE it when people say that. Especially after something truly horrible happens. What a moronic, dickish thing to say.

I completely agree.

[Cowtown Cody]

Well, everything does happen for a reason.  It's just that the reason everything happens is the causal event immediately preceding it, and nothing else.  But that's never how those people mean it, and its a shitty thing to say.

Suffering is not by definition imbued with purpose.  That's why rational people try to avoid it.

I actually really hate hearing "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."  Sometimes it works, very often it doesn't.  Quite often, the enemy of your enemy hates your idiotic face too.  It's why we have the term "Third World."

[GodSlayer]

I was just wondering if some of you had any favourite quotes you love to hate from movies, books or popular entertainment, or history, that just make you wail and gnash your teeth.

Because, I think it's useful to be exposed to other ideas, and think about them.

about half of what I see people post on facebook demands criticism.
maybe I'll rant about them in this thread when I see them in future

[GodSlayer]

"What goes around, comes around"  I hate that one as much as "everything happens for a reason"

'everything happens for a reason, though we don't always know what it is' irks me even more, because it's like they're paying lip-service to modesty while making an admittedly unjustifiable arrogant conjecture.

[GodSlayer]

There are too many to choose from, but "Everything happens for a reason" is the first to come to mind. I absolutely HATE it when people say that. Especially after something truly horrible happens. What a moronic, dickish thing to say.

I have so much hate for this quote (and sentiment), not only because it's crap, but because it puts an expectation on the person who has gone through that horrible thing that they need to somehow 'grow' from it, and that if they don't, they're being ungrateful for the gift they've been given.

A similar one is a bit more religious, but I hear it quite often, being some variation on "we're not given a challenge that we're not able to overcome." I don't think I need to explain why this is so messed up.

which seems at odds with the religious attitude of 'give yourself over to a higher power and admit you are powerless' where we're given challenges that we can only overcome with the help of religion.

[GodSlayer]

You can make a prediction (it's chocolate) but not specifics (Carmel filling). But you can get different candies for, say, women in Africa.

not to mention that some boxes of chocolate are utterly dreadful. you don't even know if you're going to get a good life... if the first half of the box has tasted awful, should you kill yourself or hope that they managed to produce a good chocolate you haven't tried yet?
'lives are like boxes of chocolates, some aren't worth having'

[GodSlayer]

"Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn't!"
 - George Bernard Shaw

may as well say the same about police and crime.

[Bill K]

One can know all details of something like crime, say, without doing it.
d
And I think the quote making a difference between try and do is kind of right. Most people when saying they'll try mean that there is a significant possibility they'll fail. On the other hand when one says they'll do they typically are confident and mean not to grammatically leave that possibility.

[GodSlayer]

"The preservation of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality."
 - Herbert Spencer

I disagree entirely (I don't think a mother is immoral for trying to get her baby out of her burning house before fleeing), but I do enjoy comically suggesting that American Christians--pro gun, pro war, pro obesity--forbidden from suicide, send themselves to an early grave because life is a wretched "gift" they wish they could be rid of.

[GodSlayer]

One can know all details of something like crime, say, without doing it.

which is why the pope can know whether or not premarital sex is wrong without having premarital sex.

[Bill K]

Which is why the pope can declare his opinion, but not much more.

[GodSlayer]

"A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless."
 - Simone Weil


no elaboration necessary.

[Bill K]

He/she's not wrong if in his/her heart God's real and all that goes with it.