Using Quotes To Get Your Point Across
There are a few different types of quotes. Adages are short but memorable sayings about some important fact or experience that many people consider to be true, or that has gained credibility because they have been used for such a long time. They might be practical or ethical guidelines, sceptical sayings about life or just interesting philosophical observations. Adages that summarize some kind of folk wisdom are more commonly known as proverbs, whereas adages that describe some general ideas for human behaviour are called Maxims. If an adage has been overused for a long time, it may come to be called a cliche.
Proverbs are among the most popular meaningful quotes that people like to repeat a lot, because they’re often based in common sense or practical experience, and are often metaphorical. Some quotes with particularly good phrasing may be more popular than others.
Sometimes people twist popular proverbs to change their meaning, this is known as an anti-proverb. The results can be quite funny, and in some cases can be twisted to mean the exact opposite of the original quote. Anti-proverbs are quite popular to be used on t-shirts.
The internet has made it very easy to find wise quotes because many people have made entire websites full of quote collections. There is a matter of accuracy though, because it’s so easy for anyone to publish anything, you can’t always be sure that the quote is accurate or was really said by the person they’ve attributed the quote to.
Quotes can be used for various reasons – to support an argument in an article, to provide information or some back story about the person who said the quote, to provoke deep thought, to provide some inspiration or just to brighten someone’s day when sent in an email.
