Claud

An avid collector of your hopes and worries, a romantic at heart.

She thanks her fairies, for blessing her with people who know compassion down to an art.

For accepting her for who she is, who never fails to turn up,

in times of need as well as happiness, or just there for a loving hug.

Twitter recently bugged me to follow this dude, that chick for 'awesome quotes' that will 'surely make my timeline more interesting'. Then the referee would often retweet certain quotes from that dude/chick that often intend to be inspiring, funny or thought-provoking.

After 1 week, that was it.

Firstly, the quotes get recycled. They do, and after a while you wonder where these people get the inspirational messages from. It gets old.

Secondly, the quotes come from very idealistic context. We all know relationships aren't that simple, and it's not just about whether the person 'cares enough' or if they 'take you as a priority' but also about commitment and circumstances as well as the historical antecedents. We can't just take advice from a stranger who don't know the context.

Thirdly, there are often angsty quotes. I get it, it's a break up, you feel like you can break chairs. I think pouring angst does not help with quelling the anger. Face the problem, forgive what's happened and move on?

I unsubscribed to all of them, only keeping mrbrown and mr. miyagi because they are seriously funny. These days, I rarely take quotes that seriously anymore, even from well-known people. Quotes require context, that sometimes come laden with a body of work and precedent understanding for one to fully appreciate the meaning of the quote. I'm sure the literature people are rolling their eyes every time someone quips "To be or not to be, that is the question" because not everyone understands what they're actually saying.

It's not to say that I don't accept advice. Advice from friends, loved ones who understand context and bother to hear the problem first, get my respect and their little words of wisdom become meaningful quotes for me that I take into my heart. Along the way, we embody their words and the truly inspirational ones change how we view the world. It even changes how we think even if we don't remember the exact words, we will always enact the spirit of them. Some part of me believes that if we truly learnt from those words, we would not need them anymore. Therefore, we remember because there is still a need to learn, and it is only until we embody them, such that we do not consciously need them as reminders anymore, I believe quotes will still have a life of their own.