# Quotes that at first sound profound but really are obvious, stupid or pointless **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 25, 2004, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800 "2004-07-25T14:13:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/61 "2020-11-24T20:09:46Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > My favorite deflation of a profound-sounding saying is from the comic strip _The Wizard of Id_ > > The King is visiting a Middle Eastern country and is being shown the harem by the Sultan. > > Sultan: There they are, fifty beautiful women, each more beautiful than the last! > > King: (clearly excited by the thought) Really??!! > > Sultan: (nonchalantly) Well, only if you line them up that way. That sounds familiar… Oh yeah: > [@CalMeacham](#): > > In an old Wizard of Id comic strip, an eastern ruler – call him The Sultan – is showing The King around his place: > > > [@](#): > > > > Sultan: And here are my concubines, each more beautiful than the last! > > > > > King: Really? > > > > > > Sultan: Well, only if you line them up that way. > > I love it. It takes the wind out of that extravagant saying by pointing out how meaningless it really is. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/62 "2020-11-24T20:15:49Z")
You need to know when to hold 'em… Probably the stupidest bit of advice I’ve seen, and the song is objectionable on many more levels. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/63 "2020-11-24T20:16:51Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > That sounds familiar… > Oh yeah: Hmm. I did a search to see if I’d contributed that before and it came up empty. I still love it. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/64 "2020-11-24T20:17:32Z")
It is what it is. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/65 "2020-11-24T20:18:44Z")
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Now hush up all, of you. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/66 "2020-11-24T20:19:44Z")
“It is what it is.” ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/67 "2020-11-24T20:24:19Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > I feel more like I do now than I did when I got here. (annon, from a bathroom wall in Kelly’s bar in Kansas City Mo 1974) > [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > “Which is farther, to Duluth or by bus?” > > Bathroom, U of Wisconsin, early 80’s. He who seeks wisdom on bathroom walls, seeks in bain. ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/68 "2020-11-24T20:35:48Z")
It’s always in the last place you look. Well, yes because once you find it, you don’t keeping looking! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/69 "2020-11-24T21:01:04Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. My spin on that is _Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stranger._ ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/70 "2020-11-24T21:18:59Z")
“You’ve got to love yourself before someone else will love you.” Bullshit. There are plenty of low self-esteem-having people who have significant others. People say this kind of thing to be helpful, but it always comes across as super smug to me. “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.” Bullshit! Whenever I hear this, I want to ask the speaker if they’re aware that hundreds of thousands of people die every day. I don’t know why anyone would two brain cells would ever take comfort in this saying. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/71 "2020-11-24T21:27:55Z")
If a thread is a zombie twice, does it become un-undead, and thus alive again? > [@monstro](#): > > “You’ve got to love yourself before someone else will love you.” > > Bullshit. There are plenty of low self-esteem-having people who have significant others. People say this kind of thing to be helpful, but it always comes across as super smug to me. I believe the point of this is that people who don’t like themselves are annoying to be with, what with all the whining all the time and all. > [@monstro](#): > > “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.” This, on the other hand, is just bullshit spouted by people who wish to believe in an omnibenevolent god despite all of reality and their own holy book saying it ain’t so. So it’s not meant to comfort _you_, it’s to comfort _them_ that the fact you just got terminal cancer doesn’t prove them wrong. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/72 "2020-11-24T21:35:33Z")
ACK! I was just informed that I picked the world’s most insensitive random example in my prior post. My deepest apologies, and pardon me while I slink off now. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/73 "2020-11-24T21:41:07Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > me. > > “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.” > [@monstro](#): > > day. I don’t know why anyone would two brain cells would ever take comfort in this saying. Amen, sister! [or brother-I don’t always keep track] ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/74 "2020-11-24T21:47:46Z")
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” — Attributed to a whole clutch of people, including Steve Martin and Frank Zappa. It’s a stupid quote that is generally used to dismiss any and all discussion of music, and implies that anyone who even _tries_ to talk about music is engaging in pointless pseudo-intellectual twaddle. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/75 "2020-11-24T21:49:48Z")
Please don’t feel bad, @begbert2! ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/76 "2020-11-24T21:57:01Z")
S’aright, though I do miss the forehead-smack smiley. (And yes I know there are ways to make that still happen but I’m ignorant and lazy.) ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/77 "2020-11-24T22:03:30Z")
Only time will tell if we stand the test of time. - Van Hagar ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/78 "2020-11-24T22:24:33Z")
It ain’t over 'till it’s over - Yogi Berra ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/79 "2020-11-24T22:27:39Z")
Yogi, you obviously watched the KC Chiefs Sunday. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2020, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800/80 "2020-11-25T00:13:36Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > My favorite twist on this one is, “Whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you _stranger_ .” What doesn’t kill me makes me whinier. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotes-that-at-first-sound-profound-but-really-are-obvious-stupid-or-pointless/256800.md?page=5)