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“I quote others only to better express myself.” 

Michel de Montaigne <The Complete Essays>

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So <part 1>. This is about me and how often I use quotes as well as my attitude on using quotes and, I imagine, me in business <because I like to use quotes in presentations and in teaching>.

So <part 2>. Ok. I imagine this is actually not about me, but quotes in general.

Regardless. I use quotes all the time. And I take solace in the fact that Montaigne did also. As he, I use quotes all the time because, well, they say it better than anything could ever say. They do help me express myself.

I also use quotes to make a larger point. In today’s world it seems like there is a deep naive thread that some things have never been thought about before, never been discussed before and, even more importantly, have never happened before.

99% of the time someone really smart has thought about the same thing someone today is pontificating about as “the new disaster of the day.”

Which leads me to the fact I use quotes because it is the quote that often makes me think of what to write.

I would imagine over 95% of what I write begins with, or from, a quote.

Uhm. Basically that means 95%+ of the time I do not have an original thought. Yup. Someone else has the original thought and I simply think about it and share something.

Yikes. Does that mean I am unoriginal?

Shit. I’m not sure I should care.

<by the way … I am not sure anyone should care about being unoriginal>

I’m not in the business of original thought. I am in the business of sharing thinking.

That’s the way I look at it.

If I get lucky and am actually original on something that’s simply a bonus. An unexpected bonus.

But I am fairly realistic in that I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer and there have been a shitload of ‘sharp knives’ who have figured out how to say something in a wonderful collection of words and syllables and metaphors which I can only envy … so I use them.

In addition … I imagine this is simply an extension of who I am as a person. A renovator and not a builder. Or what Pareto <an Italian sociologist> called the Speculator and the Rentier.

The Speculator is constantly preoccupied with the possibilities of new combinations.

Rentiers are more conservers of the routine … he also calls them Stockholders.

While I am not sure I agree life is as simple as he suggests, I do agree different people think different ways … and inevitably they have different skill sets <despite the fact many business people would like to think they are good at everything>.

Me? It is absolutely, clearly, in my DNA to be “constantly preoccupied with possibilities of new combinations.”

Anyway. Maybe that is why I use quotes so often. And I will continue to use them until I am sure I have something original to say I will use quotes.

“[A] quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business.”

A.A. Milne

Now. I will be honest. I am absolutely positively sure I misuse quotes all the time. So how do I sleep at night knowing that I do so?

Well.

You get to see the quote.

You get to think about the quote.

You get to interpret the quote as you see fit.

You get to see how I interpreted the quote … and agree or disagree.

In the end I imagine that is all I can ask for when I use a quote.

Thinking. Not ‘enlightened’ thinking <that would be slightly pretentious … don’t you think?>. Just thinking.

I tend to think when I use a quote I hope it makes the reader think. Thinking is a means to an end. Thinking begets enlightened. I don’t believe anyone ‘enlightens’, but rather inspires being enlightened.

<note: as you can probably tell I often spend a lot of time trying to explain enlighten conflict to people as well as get a lot f shit about ‘so you are enlightened’ … of which I typically sigh … and say ‘I may be one of the most unenlightened people you will ever meet … but I am certainly a work in progress in terms of trying to become enlightened>

Anyway. I also imagine that I try and use some more obscure quotes and words so in the ‘unexpected’ or ‘new unseen words’ I hope you think anew.

Ok. But quotes themselves.

Well. I admit … I dislike … well … no. Hate. Hate when a quote is used to make a point for which it wasn’t really stated to make a point for.

Many people flippantly use quotes to make a point. Ignoring the context. Often slightly changing the quote. Usually using the part they want and selectively ignoring other parts. Ok. I bet I do it on occasion. And I simply take solace in the fact that maybe all that matters is that we think.

Here is what I know for sure.

Professional writers are professional for a reason, i.e., they know how to put words together in ways that emote.

Amateur writers, while certainly not as good as professional writers, can stumble upon a wonderful moment of clarity in which they put together words in a way that emote.

I seek those moments of words. For in those moments, using other’s words, you step into a world of unimaginable thought.

That, my friends, is my paradise. A world of thought.

I can only hope that on occasion I show you that world. That is why I use quotes.

And because I am fairly sure I cannot do it with my own words. That is why I can live, quite well thank you, being unoriginal.

This I am today … I was yesterday … and will most likely be tomorrow.

Ah. That was  paraphrase of a Louis L’Amour quote <one of my favorites>:

“Everyone has it within his power to say, ‘This I am today; that I will be tomorrow.”

Louis L’Amour