What's the most bullsh*t quote ever?

“God won’t give you anything you can’t handle.”

Right. Because suicide is not a thing that exists.

We’re all sensitive people
With so much to give
Understand me, sugar
Since we’ve got to be here
Let’s live
I love you

[That’s the bullshit part]

So c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, baby
Stop beatin’ ‘round the bush
Let’s get it on
Let’s get it on
You know what I’m talkin’ ‘bout
C’mon, baby

[and that’s the real part.]

—Let’s Get It On, Marvin Gaye, 1973

“That which doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.”

Unless you are left alive with a disability or a chronic illness.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results” – “Albert Einstein”

Not only is the quote trite, but Einstein never said it. In fact it doesn’t even appear until two decades or so after his death.

@Mariah the quote goes hand in hand with the notion that suicide is a sin.

“Dung beetles, the shit they pull”

David Attemborough, I believe he was high on meds.

“Arbeit macht frei”

I see memes on FB that have celebrities photos and a quote over them, and I am sure half of them are bullshit.

My bullshit quote offering here is “Karma comes back around.” Some people do all kinds of bad shit and nothing bad ever happens to them, at least not as bad as the shit they do.

“Everything happens for a reason. ” I truly dislike that one. Or “It’s a miracle! ” Especially about birth.

“If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.”

That’s saying: “Lower your standards. Cheat. Settle.”

The bullshit pop sayings that 40 is the new 20 and 60 is the new 40 and 80 is the new 60. I have always fucking hated this egoic bullshit that is, clearly, all about peoples fear of aging and their mortality. I have heard just about every version of this crap and recently someone I know actually ramped it up to a whole new level saying that 80 is the new 60! Are you fucking serious!

For every 80 year old that is running marathons another 100 have been taking a dirt nap for the last 5 years. lol
I get that humans are living longer and healthier lives than other generations perhaps but…the average life expectancy is still 70 something. I see this to be on par with our cultures obsession with youth and a narcissistic need to deny ones mortality. Just STFU and go sit on the porch with a glass of lemonade and at chill out.

“How are you?”

How so many, many times have you said or heard that said to you and known how mechanical and insincere those 3 words are?

@jca That always happens on Facebook, where some random quote pops up with a picture of a famous person who said it; and many times it’s false. Like @Darth_Algar‘s Einstein quote.

In fact, poor Einstein, he’s the one I see the most often as having said things he never did.

@Darth_Algar I never heard that Einstein said that, but I’m not subject to the latest in pop culture and related bullshit, as propagated on sites like FB. It doesn’t even sound like anything Einstein would say. I personally believe that quote came out of the once popular counter-culture Esalen classes in the ‘60s, which explains it’s high bullshit rating.

@Darth_Algar @Espiritus_Corvus I don’t know who first said that, but to call it trite or bullshit is to miss its important value to communicate that if one wants something different to happen, quit doing what you are doing.

I first heard it 31 years ago. It is commonly used by those in recovery that repetition of destructive behavior will not result in a different outcome.

@zenvelo

That may be, but you’re putting much more thought into it than most folks who like to cite supposed quotes from well-known people in order to sound intellectual.

And at any rate the overall point could be better made with something other than a dopey soundbite-esque meme-ready quote.

@zenvelo You are right. It doesn’t meet the criteria for bullshit. It may not be a very clinical definition of something as compicated as insanity, but it is true that if you want different results, you must start doing things differently. The statement works both forwards and backwards and therefore is a truism.

And come to think of it, I believe I first heard that quote from a person attending AA at about the same time you did. A control-F search of the word “results” of a pdf copy of Bill’s Big Book, AA’s seminal document, shows 12 hits. None of them are in the statement. That surprised me, because it sounds like something Bill would have come up with. He was a wise man.

My first post above was an example of sloppy writing. A lot of things that came out of early Esalen were deemed bullshit once put into practice. This statement, if it they had incorporated it into their teachings, was not one of those things.

Every cloud has a sliver lining. NOT

“Good thing comes to those who serve the Lord and are called according to his purpose.”

“Trust me…,”

“Believe me…”

“I’ve seen…”

I’m a smart person…”

You figure that is that keeps the BS up.

“I did not have sex with that woman!” He’d have never gotten in trouble today, you know, alternate facts and all.

Well, some folks don’t really consider blowjobs to be sex, so…...