Random Quotes Meme

So here’s one that I should be able to get behind: choose 5 quotes from this list that “speak” to you, and elucidate upon why. (Since it’s a randomized list, presumably there will be little overlap.)

The results are mixed — a lot of the quotes were trite truisms. Here are the five I narrowed it to.

There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.
— Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970)

I find too many books that I “should” read fall into the latter category — I should read them so that I can say that I read them (and can recommend them to others to read, thus seeming even more generous with my spiffiness). Feh. Life’s too short. I read to enjoy. If I don’t enjoy it, I stop reading it.

Really listening and suspending one’s own judgment is necessary in order to understand other people on their own terms… This is a process that requires trust and builds trust.
— Mary Field Belenky

Some people will never learn anything because they understand everything too soon.
— Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744)

These two actually overlap a fair amount. I know things in my head are usually going a million miles an hour, so I’m more likely to interpret what I’m hearing and draw conclusions from it long before you’re finished talking. That comes in handy in some cases, and is a real problem in others (and is likely irritating in most).

Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
— Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900)

Because, of course, one then controls both the topics being covered and the spin upon them. An old trick.

Hmmm. Maybe this meme should be to require people to write on the first five quotes, regardless of what they say. I bet a lot fewer people would do it.

The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they’re going to have some pretty annoying virtues.
— Elizabeth Taylor (1932 – )

A bit snarky, but something of a truism. A lot depends on what you consider a vice, and what you consider a virtue. People who are consciously vice-free (or at least ostensibly so) usually very openly “righteous” about it — which wears the mask of virtue and is in reality the vice of pride. To take a mundane example — the ex-smoker who puffs (ha) and preens over his ex-smokiness and becomes a pest encouraging others. He might consider it a virtue to do so, trying to save lives, but it
can quickly backfire.

Of course, there’s also a human tendency to be annoyed by the virtuous, whether they are being self-righteous or not. When we have a weakness, we like to generalize it to the population (“Well, everyone does that / feels that / fails that sometimes”). Seeing someone who doesn’t is like having our own weaknesses magnified, and the automatic reaction is to either disprove the lack of vice, or find some other way the supposed paragon has feet of clay (“Well, he quit smoking, sure, but have you noticed
all the weight he’s put on?”).

I get not-infrequent comments from people around my life about various virtues I have, or vices I lack. These always worry me, both because of the worry that I’m being set up for a fall, and because I know how many vices I do have, and the last thing I need to throw into that mix is self-righteousness (a vice too many of us suffer from, particularly in the blogosphere).

And that’s way too much profundity to draw from Elizabeth Taylor. Sorry about that. 🙂

Despite tradition, I’m not pushing this meme on others. Pick it up if you’d like.

(via Terry)