Proverbs or common wisdom you disagree with

[ZeaLitY]

Stupid. One day the Sun will have had enough, and flash into an earth-destroying supernova. Unrequited love is not to be quickly celebrated or idealized as it is here.

[Kenji]

Actually, this reminds me a lot of George Carlin's justification of sun worship.

[V_Translanka]

And every night the earth totally slums it & ufcks the moon doggy-style in a back alley somewhere downtown...That's true love right there (not to mention all the other planets the Sun casts its rays on...what a slut). No wonder I've never heard of that "Hafiz" guy...that saying is so shmultzy (is it just me or have I been using a lot of Jewishy words lately? >_> If you ever catch me whipping out an 'oy vey' you can go ahead & shoot me) it sounds like he read it off of a Halmark card...It's cute and I get what it's trying to say, however stupid it goes about saying it, but it's just that it's that suffocatingly sugary sweet cuteness that just makes you want to strangle someone because no one should be that positive about anything ever.

As for ones I'd rail against...Hmmm..."Absence makes the heart grow fonder" always seemed stupid to me...What kind of stupid message is that? Yeah, stay away from the one you love because the more you miss them the more you love them?

"God helps them that help themselves" is another stupid one...obviously not if you have to do it yourself!

"The best things in life are free" I just don't like because you pay for everything in life one way or another (gods, is that a proverb, too?). I guess it's antithesis would be "You don't get something for nothing"...I'm convinced people that made one proverb made another to counter it exactly in many cases...or maybe it was just another smartass that came along afterwords...?

"Where there's smoke, there's fire" just isn't right, really.

"Time cures all things"...I guess this makes sense if it's looked at as meaning eventually you'll die...but then again, that means that it won't cure death...but either way it's stupid.

"What you don't know can't hurt you"...is obviously stupid. It's akin to "Ignorance is bliss", but at least that one's worded more vaguely so that it can make some semblance of true sense...

"When in doubt, do nothing"...who ever thought this was a good idea? This one had to have taken some balls for the people trying to spread it around. Why anyone would mistake this for wisdom is beyond me. Probably a buncha hippies...lol

[Jutty]

This reminds me of an old Maddox article. http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=boiling_blood
My favorite from his article is

Some of the best things in life are free:

Yeah? Well so are some of the worst, and I don't see anyone throwing a party when they get cancer.

[BROJ]

"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."
   - George Washington Carver
Wow, you can't get get more generalized than that... Just because a person uses a wrench as a hammer, doesn't make him/her a sensationalist.

"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters."
   - Frank Lloyd Wright
Meh... It might be nice to silence the rabble of fools, but it is only through analyzing one's ideas, and having one's ideas analyzed by others, that a fool can become wiser.

And one that I hold true:
"Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours."
   - Richard Bach

And the point of this topic:
"A witty saying proves nothing."
   - Voltaire

[Thought]

Some of the best things in life are free:

Yeah? Well so are some of the worst, and I don't see anyone throwing a party when they get cancer.

Hmm... cancer-parties. You know, with the right marketing, that just might work.

How about, "What which does not kill you only makes you stronger."

[BROJ]

How about, "What which does not kill you only makes you stronger."

Ahh, Friedrich Nietzsche... Perhaps 'That which does not kill you, teaches you what not to do next time.' is a better way to put it.

[Daniel Krispin]

Stupid. One day the Sun will have had enough, and flash into an earth-destroying supernova. Unrequited love is not to be quickly celebrated or idealized as it is here.

Oh, I'm sure he knows that well enough. Ironically, I wrote a sonnet that expressed very similar sentiments, using the very same sun analogy (though at the risk of haughtiness, I prefer my poem), this 'yet shine the sun's rays still unwearied, sure / in race cross deserts and his arctic course. / Nor cares he if dark clouds his light obscure. / What thanks need he? His love is Nature's force!'

Yet that's written in amidst the passion of a love. I am sure anyone who has felt like that has also, as I have, felt the selfsame cynicsm regarding such 'pretty' renderings as you have just spoken.

Far be it from me to declaim you on this, however. Rather, I laugh bitterly alongside you at the truth of what you say. For I know full well the sun does not run unwearied! Let us only name that an artistic hyperbole. Thank you for your cynicsm, it's brightened my day.

As for ones I disagree with, oh, many of those.

- 'Good things come to those who wait.' Simply not true. If you're not happy with what you've got, you'll just be discontent in waiting.

- 'Love conquers all.' Vergil's wrong on this one; then again, what's one to expect from someone that writes Homer fanfiction?

- 'Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% persperation.' Call me of an aristocratic mindset, but I see genius as the guy that just throws out some masterwork with only half a thought. If you put in that much work, you may be dedicated, but you're not genius. Take that, Edison.

- 'Jedes topf findet sein deckel.' (a German one meaning 'every pot finds its lid', meaning that everyone finds someone eventually. Right. Then how do you account for all the bachelours? Heh. Again, simply not true!)

- 'Everybody needs someone to love.' There are those entirely content, indeed, moreso, without.

- 'Make love not war.' As if enough blood hasn't been spilled in the pursuit of love.

- 'Don't take life too seriously; no one ever got out alive.' And who is not serious does not truly live, as it is the serious mind who contemplates and makes each moment worthwhile. Stupid.

- 'Love happens when you least look for it.' Never seen this happen, so I think it's bs.

- 'There are no stupid questions.' How naive.

- 'It takes (far more) muscles to frown than smile.' (Oh, I heard the perfect answer to this one: yeah, but it takes none to just sit with a blank expression.)

- 'Everone is special.' To quote the Incredibles (kudos for a kids movie actually saying this): that's just another way of saying no one is.

Oh, and on this topic, let us just glance at the Demotivators site, which destroys utterly the most trite of common wisdom:

http://despair.com/

Which has such jewels as:

[BROJ]

- 'Don't take life too seriously; no one ever got out alive.' And who is not serious does not truly live, as it is the serious mind who contemplates and makes each moment worthwhile. Stupid.

I don't think the statement means what you think it means, but perhaps my interpretation bleeds into other concepts... At any rate, what I feel it means is one should not worry about the trivial happenstances and the circumstances that one cannot reasonably change(i.e. past, one will always have enemies, the fact of inevitable death, etc), rather than not worrying about life's cares, responsibilities or pleasures.

'There are no stupid questions.' How naive.

The 'question' is quite possibly the purest concept that mankind has ever invented. Why? Because a question takes a stance of ignorance as opposed to the hubris and/or foolishness of a false assumption and thus cannot be considered "stupid", because the definition does not apply.
For your convenience:

Stupidity
Stupidity is the quality or condition of lacking intelligence, as opposed to being merely ignorant or uneducated. This quality can be attributed to both an individual or a person's actions, words or beliefs, or those of a group.

[Thought]

How about, "What which does not kill you only makes you stronger."

Ahh, Friedrich Nietzsche... Perhaps 'That which does not kill you, teaches you what not to do next time.' is a better way to put it.

Better, but still bunk. What about all those things that happen through no direct action of our own? A friend burns you (metaphorically speaking), and most people will be shyier, less willing to trust others. Contract HIV? Bah, nothing but downhill from there. Get heat stroke? Too bad that you are now more susceptable to it.

Sorry, I'm being pessimistic.

- 'Good things come to those who wait.' Simply not true. If you're not happy with what you've got, you'll just be discontent in waiting.

To be fair, it didn't say ALL good things come to those who wait, or that waiting always brings good things. Case in point, steak. If you don't wait, you wont get a good steak. Counterpoint, cheese. If you wait too long... well, I hope you like furry cheese.

- 'Make love not war.' As if enough blood hasn't been spilled in the pursuit of love.

I have a shirt that says "Make Believe Not War"

- 'It takes (far more) muscles to frown than smile.'

So... lazy people smile, and industrius one's frown?

- 'Everone is special.' To quote the Incredibles (kudos for a kids movie actually saying this): that's just another way of saying no one is.

You need to see Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog:

"Everyone's a hero in their own way... in their own, not that heroic way."

[Azure]

"Hate the game, not the player"

Its so much easier to get rid of the player if you like the game... 

[nightmare975]

"When in doubt whip it out."

Because sex solves everything apparently.

[BROJ]

How about, "What which does not kill you only makes you stronger."

Ahh, Friedrich Nietzsche... Perhaps 'That which does not kill you, teaches you what not to do next time.' is a better way to put it.

Better, but still bunk. What about all those things that happen through no direct action of our own? A friend burns you (metaphorically speaking), and most people will be shyier, less willing to trust others. Contract HIV? Bah, nothing but downhill from there. Get heat stroke? Too bad that you are now more susceptable to it.

Sorry, I'm being pessimistic.

Thought, are you saying that the epiphany of any of these conditions would not change your perception on a reasonable way to live? Certainly I wouldn't put myself in the position of a subsequent 'burn', heat stroke or worsen my condition further. A reasonable person would quickly come to the conclusion of 'if you hit rock bottom, by your own will or not, stop digging'. From that, I think the intended meaning of "strength" is wisdom.

[KebreI]

BROJ I so sorry to say this but, people are just idiots sometimes and will keep digging.

[BROJ]

BROJ I so sorry to say this but, people are just idiots sometimes and will keep digging.

Alas, I wholly agree with you; rationality is a function not easily obtained─consistent rationality even less so.