# Clichés you often hear that aren't true **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 2, 2009, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462 "2009-06-02T05:57:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/21 "2009-06-02T17:47:09Z")
“The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” Ha! Not when I was a retail manager. You come in and raise hell demanding this and that I’m likely to tell you to fuck-off and get out of my store. You talk to me like a civilized human and ask politely if there’s any way I can help you and I’ll bend over backwards to make you happy. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/22 "2009-06-02T17:54:33Z")
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” IME, absence makes the heart soon forget. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/23 "2009-06-02T17:54:39Z")
> [@Cazzle](#): > > I’m going to pinch a movie quote that’s become a cliche. > > “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” > > I’d have a better idea of where I was going if my life came with a picture on the front of the box, a list of ingredients on the side and a map under the lid. Yes. And a big red label: “Warning: Lark’s vomit.” ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/24 "2009-06-02T18:09:43Z")
Speaking of boiled frogs, James Fallows of the Atlantic has been [fighting](http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/boiledfrog/)the good fight against that particular piece of ignorance for years. The Straight Dope should give him a special award or something… ---
**Author:** ![myriad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@myriad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myriad)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/25 "2009-06-02T18:31:25Z")
**It will all work out in the end** Of course it will, you’ll be dead and won’t care anymore. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/26 "2009-06-02T18:37:41Z")
> [@SHAKES](#): > > I just read an article the other day tittled: “Opposites do NOT attract” the article stated that statistic show that people who have _more_ in common are more likely to have lasting relationships. (romanticaly speaking) Attraction and having lasting relationships are not even close to the same thing, though. The cliche doesn’t say “Opposites live happily ever after.” “Opposites attract” is merely a hormone-driven variation of “the grass is always greener on the other side,” which is to say that people often get turned on by things in other people that are different from what they’re used to. ---
**Author:** ![StuffLikeThatThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@StuffLikeThatThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StuffLikeThatThere)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/27 "2009-06-02T18:57:42Z")
Oh, honey, it’s too bad you can’t get pregnant. Just adopt a baby. You’ll get pregnant right away! It always happens that way! ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/28 "2009-06-02T19:14:44Z")
[Obligatory xkcd link](http://xkcd.com/357/) ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/29 "2009-06-02T19:31:14Z")
> [@Early\_Out](#): > > “The customer is always right.” No, sometimes the customer is a raving loony, making demands that would bankrupt you. I’ve worked with customers and patrons for over 20 years. Whoever came up with _this_ little saying should be boiled alive in a vat of Idi Amin’s orange-smelling piss. “You can’t cheat an honest man.” Tell that to Elie Wiesel and other victims of Bernie Madoff. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/30 "2009-06-02T19:34:09Z")
> [@Linty\_Fresh](#): > > “You can’t cheat an honest man.” Tell that to Elie Wiesel and other victims of Bernie Madoff. That particular case does give _some_ ring of truth to that saying, although not so universal as “can’t” cheat an honest man. Many of Madoff’s investors (not sure which ones, probably all anonymous) thought that Madoff was getting such high returns by scamming the market, somehow, not realizing it was themselves, instead. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/31 "2009-06-02T19:38:06Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” > > IME, absence makes the heart soon forget. Wrong cliche. “Out of sight, out of mind.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![davekhps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@davekhps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davekhps)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/32 "2009-06-02T20:02:06Z")
> [@SHAKES](#): > > It’s funny you should mention this. > I just read an article the other day tittled: “Opposites do NOT attract” the article stated that statistic show that people who have _more_ in common are more likely to have lasting relationships. (romanticaly speaking) It’s funny you should mention this, as I just read an article the other day titled “[Gene Research Finds Opposites Do Attract](http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/may/24/genes-human-attraction).” The great debate marches on! ---
**Author:** ![breezman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@breezman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breezman)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/33 "2009-06-02T20:15:10Z")
“Half the people are below average income/intelligence/height/whatever.” This is usually close to being correct, but it’s doesn’t always hold. One outlier can skew the mean (which is what “average” means in common usage) pretty badly. “You can’t prove a negative.” Take any class in number theory and you’ll see that it’s possible to prove that there’s no largest prime, and there’s no pair of whole numbers whose ratio equals the square root of 2. ---
**Author:** ![DudleyGarrett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DudleyGarrett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DudleyGarrett)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/34 "2009-06-02T20:15:56Z")
I remember in college one of my philosophy professors once said, “For every cliche, there exists a cliche that is the opposite.” True? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/35 "2009-06-02T20:20:03Z")
> [@DudleyGarrett](#): > > I remember in college one of my philosophy professors once said, “For every cliche, there exists a cliche that is the opposite.” > > True? Great Minds Think Alike…and Fools Seldom Differ ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/36 "2009-06-02T20:24:52Z")
> [@DudleyGarrett](#): > > I remember in college one of my philosophy professors once said, “For every cliche, there exists a cliche that is the opposite.” > > True? The game Medieval 2: Total War is almost a proof of this. There’s a splash screen that appears occasionally that contains one random quote. Some of them contradict each other (much of the time, one of the offenders is Machiavelli.) For instance: Do not do everything in your power to your enemy, for you do not know when they might one day be your friend. vs. Men should either be treated generously or destroyed, for a hurt man can seek vengeance but a ruined man cannot. In war, three things are necessary: money, money, and yet more money. vs. The sinews of war are not money, but good soldiers. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/37 "2009-06-02T20:43:51Z")
I vote for “never let the sun go down on your wrath” as relationship advice. I have always found that staying up till 2 am irritably trying to resolve some minor issue is not nearly as helpful as getting a good night’s sleep and waking up in the morning to discover that you are no longer angry and in fact feel like an idiot for having made a mountain out of a molehill. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/38 "2009-06-02T20:50:27Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” > > Ha! Not when I was a retail manager. You come in and raise hell demanding this and that I’m likely to tell you to fuck-off and get out of my store. You talk to me like a civilized human and ask politely if there’s any way I can help you and I’ll bend over backwards to make you happy. The squeaky wheel gets replaced. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/39 "2009-06-02T21:06:34Z")
> [@DudleyGarrett](#): > > I remember in college one of my philosophy professors once said, “For every cliche, there exists a cliche that is the opposite.” > > True? The squeaky wheel gets the grease _vs._ the tallest poppy gets mown down ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462/40 "2009-06-02T21:23:25Z")
I avoid cliches like the plague. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliches-you-often-hear-that-arent-true/498462.md?page=3)