Exhibit A:

Okay, maybe this isn’t your thing.

Try logging on to your social media around 9 AM. The get-over-your-heartbreak-quotes are magically replaced by you-can-succeed-quotes, most of which are by people you didn’t even know existed.

Exhibit B:

And then, the internet will feed you quotes on life, success, happiness, sadness, courage, trust, creativity, love, loss and every other human/animal/alien emotion that exists.

These days, the ones that can gather a million hits are quotes on travel. 

The one that I personally love to hate is this, which BTW wasn’t even meant to be a travel quote:

I refuse to believe that you haven’t come across a single person in your friend list who hasn’t shared this profound quote. 

Do me a favour and no, it doesn’t involve playing Holi. Please go and ask that dear friend whether he/she even knows who said/wrote this line. 

I can bet they wouldn’t know and just to save your friend from a whole lot of embarrassment, this is a line from the poem ‘All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter,‘ which features in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. 

Captioning your travel pictures with this quote must sound ridiculous now, right?

Anyway, the point that I’m trying to make is that some beautiful words, intelligently stringed together can’t be the source of someone’s inspiration. They can make you feel a certain way but are they strong enough to inspire you to turn your entire life around?

Take for example this well-circulated quote by Bill Gates (that many claim isn’t his):

Now, we know that this makes sense. But let’s be honest: would you not crib when a colleague gets promoted even though you deserved it? Or, will you not question your girlfriend if she cheats on you? 

Come on, you even mourn the death of your beloved character on Game of Thrones and question the fairness of life in a fictional world. 

How about we question the hollow inspiration that is derived from these quotes? 

If you really want to seek inspiration, then delve into the life story of someone who you idealize. 

Read about Bill Gates. Know of his struggles, his obstacles, his flight to success instead of picking up one of his quotes, which is out of context and posting it on your timeline. 

It’s as simple as reading a book. You can’t get the whole story by its title. 

And for god’s sake, putting up a favourite quote as your display picture is just outrageous. It makes no fucking sense. The concept of a display picture is to show your face to the world and not the utter non-sense that you tumble upon, on a sleepless night.

You still don’t agree with me? 

Imagine like it’s the middle of the month and you are already broke. You’ve got 15 long days to go and the electricity bill just is pending. Not to forget that your landlord won’t let you off easy this time, given that your 3-month rent is pending. 

And in this very situation, you tumble upon a quote that says: 

I don’t think this is going to pay your bills and help you keep a roof over your head. 

Inspiration only comes to those who build up the courage to seek it. It’s not a work of some profound words and Photoshop. It is greater than that.

Today, a quote on overcoming a breakup won’t help you. You might connect to it, given the circumstances, but you will only overcome it if you tell yourself that you can. Here, only your efforts will count and not the likes that you might get on a quote that you posted.

And for all those who still don’t get it, here’s all I want to say: