Anyone who's ever confronted the HR department at your job, especially in professional/technical environments, or a counselor, or, to keep this on topic, your elders. knows that there is a number of well crafted quotes out there, that are good to make a point across. Quotes that are used to attempt to inspire you, challenge you or make you think out of the box. If there is one place where such quotes are constantly published out of any contexts, is social media. People tend to simply post pictures with quotes. They hardly ever bother to post them in the context of a story. They are simply regurgitated as the answer to life's problems but often times, I find myself questioning how the quote applies. Some are so open ended that, in my opinion, are prone to being, and firmly believe that in many cases, they are being used to abuse power or authority.
For example, consider the following quote.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
The above, allegedly by Ghandi (but the true source is challenged as I read), can hardly be miss applied in my view. If I am arguing with you, especially if we have an ideological confrontation, I can not throw that quote at you pretending that it would be in your favor. In essence, I would be encouraging you to keep in your path and that you will eventually win over me. If instead, I am looking to make you accept the status quo and I want you to accept things the way they are, even when it is in a clear disadvantage to you, I could direct you to the typical... try to see the glass as half full rather than half empty. We've been there... don't look at the shortcomings of the brothers, look at their strengths. Don't look for blame or mistakes in the org, just think of the many people we are helping become better parents, leave drugs and vices, etc. In other words, to me, certain quotes and catchy phrases are abused and I have had my fair share of people trying to switch the blame to me by using quotes of that nature. So here I propose an end to this by quoting...
Consider the glass always half full, not half empty..... so long that the person who passes the glass to you is not the one who drank the other half when you were not looking.
Your thoughts?