When quotes work

Wanna test your Latin? Try this phrase: Audentis Fortuna iudat. Yep, fortune favours the brave. Well done!

Turnus, legendary leader of the Rutuli people, used it as a battle cry to rally his army against the Trojans. Well, at least in Virgil’s Aeneid, the epic poem about Aeneas, who was a Trojan hero and Turnus’s adversary.

Why am I on about a poem about a fictional war, written over two thousand years ago? Because Greek mythology is pretty cool and has some great stories. Daedalus and Icarus, Theseus and the Minotaur, Pandora’s Box... Aeneid is cool, too. (Allegedly - I’ve never read it.) Anyway, Virgil died in 19 B.C. but, two thousand years later, some still say “Fortune favours the brave”. He’d be well chuffed if he was alive. But it’s hard to gauge how much truth the phrase actually contains.

You could argue that fortune/Fortuna does favour the brave: if you have the courage to do something, success is more likely to come your way. At the same time, courageous folk often end up in dangerous situations that they could have avoided if they were a little less brave. But then, who says you’re supposed to take quotes at face value? Just think of some that are attributed to Jesus. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” The odds of that happening are not looking good.

Speaking of Christ, he wanted you to believe, and so do great quotes. Whether they express some truth or not is beside the point, if they can at least convince you that it’s worth believing them. And they do it by making you feel all kinds of things. Think of an emotion, and I’ll give you a quote on it. Ooh, that sounds like a fun game, doesn’t it? So, let’s play!

Fear: “Do one thing every day that scares you.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)

Anger: “When angry, count to ten before you speak. If you are very angry, count to one hundred.” (Thomas Jefferson)

Love: “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” (Emily Brontë)

Surprise: “The husband who decides to surprise his wife is often very much surprised himself.” (Voltaire)

Happiness AND sadness: “The word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.” (Carl Jung)

Now, I’m not saying those five quotes are great. In fact, you might think that some of them are a bit silly. But they’re powerful in that lots of people can relate to their message. They express some shared experience or knowledge; no matter if it’s first-hand or vicarious. They make you go “Yes, I know what that’s like”. They evoke a memory, an image, an idea, a smell. Or maybe they just make you think, which is no mean feat.

Alas and alack, a little pondering will no longer do in this day and age - as Emily Brontë might put it if she was still around. No, people today expect you to be busy pursuing success. Enter the shedloads of quotes that are supposed to make you get off your bum to achieve it.

Don’t get me wrong, succeeding in what you deeply care about is gratifying. And there are many quotes that are witty (“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” - Estée Lauder), clever (“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” - Henry David Thoreau) or just matter-of-fact (“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” - Arthur Ashe). Their message is strong and clear, without being over the top or corny.

Trouble is, they’re buried under a tidal wave of quotes that are saccharine or vacuous at best and downright damaging at worst. Damaging if you fall for them, that is. Below is a random selection - you can look up whoever said these, I can’t be fussed to add the names. But I’m happy to put in my two penn’orth about each one.

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

Hm. I know where this one is coming from - be ambitious, etc. - but it’s best to be grounded and not have your head in the clouds. Some dreams never come true.

“A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.”

Oh no, not dreaming again… Winners are dreamers now? And since when does not giving up mean you win? Also, win what?

“You become what you believe.”

No, you don’t. Next!

“You define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script.”

How about a child born into extreme poverty or war? Or raised by cold, domineering parents? Circumstances matter.

“Nothing is impossible.”

Are you nuts? Loads of things are impossible. Be more specific or shut it!

The problem with these pseudo-inspirational quotes is that they give you false hope. If you keep hearing stuff like “Everyone is special,” you’ll end up bitter and disappointed when you realise that it’s not true. Sure, you shouldn’t go around telling people that not everyone is special because if you did… On second thoughts, maybe you should.

That way, you could get them to face the facts. They might feel down for a while, but they’ll probably reassess their situation and bounce back. Isn’t that a better outcome than what deceiving them by sugar-coating reality would achieve? “Truth exists, only falsehood has to be invented,” Georges Braque once said. There, an excellent quote.

Quotes can come in handy when you’re writing content. Even ones that seem cheesy or daft at first blush. As long as they’re relatable and you don’t use them to deceive people, you should be fine.