I noticed that on the Facebook and elsewhere, there is a great penchant about putting up Quotes. These range from quotes about Love, Friendship, Politics, Life; indeed about each and every subject. Whilst reading these quotes I was stuck by the realisation that somehow we have this feeling that the sages, saints and wise-people of the past had abundance of sane-advice on all kinds of subjects; but, by a curious quirk of fate, we ourselves and fellow citizens have nothing great to offer in terms of such advice. When I started analysing this, I reached the conclusion that there is nothing simpler than giving sane advice; the answer is really blowing in the wind; it is everywhere. We only have to gather these pearls around us and weave them in a garland. That’s how I started this Facebook page called ‘Make Your Own Quotes’ with an introduction: “There is nothing simpler than giving sane advice; you don’t have to follow great teachers. Make your own quotes and let others follow you.”
This venture started on the 25th of Feb 2013 and on the coming 25th of April, it would be all of two months old. I have received tremendous interest from friends in these Quotes that have not only advice, but, at times are humorous and even naughty. I give you here the best of ‘Make Your Own Quotes’ from my Facebook page for the last two months, with the promise that the best is yet to come as long as you subscribe to it by Liking the Page.
I like all quotes on Facebook; these provide quick and easy solutions to life’s seemingly complex problems. I believe life is as simple as Facebook; what you get is dependant upon your “settings”.
I started off by giving tips to people on how to make their own quotes, eg,
Great Quotes Tip #1: Compare Life, Love, Relationships etc to something mundane and infer “great” sounding advice out of it.Here is an (original example): “Friends should be like electricity wires; opposite poles, running parallel and lighting up lives by meeting”. For effect, inscribe this on a totally unrelated picture of, say, a Frog in a Pond. Wanna try your hand at it; go ahead….nothing is simpler! Try comparing Life to Beans!! Go ahead, now that you have joined this site, you will eventually follow your own quotes!!!
I followed this up with:
Great Quotes Tip #2
Take a famous Quote and make it stand on its head by a juxtaposition of words. They will really marvel at the quotes “great” and “pragmatic” message.
For example:
Where there is a way, there is a will!
Great Quotes Tip #3Simplify to the point of being ridiculous and you have a great Quote….especially if it is on a colourful picture.
Great Quotes Tip #4: Quotes about something called ‘LOVE’ will always be very popular; the best are those that don’t make any sense at all; for then they have this enigmatic quality about them, which is similar to the subject of the Quotes!
At a fairly early stage, I could make fun of my own quotes. Here is one:
Here is one of my early quotes about the reality of Poverty Alleviation Programmes:
Many times, My Quotes are regarding prevalent fads. Here is one of them:
I have made many that are simply ‘tongue in cheek’. This one was well liked. Indeed, a friend commented that in future she would think of this every time in a discussion:
I then started with Alternate Definitions of words. This one is my very first effort:
I have always been interested in Psychology and Philosophy. In this blog itself there is a section on Philosophy. Naturally, therefore, many of my quotes are on this subject. Here is one:
Some of my quotes are based on my observations and lessons that I have learnt in life. Here is one based on my observations:
I simply adored our dog Roger. I have made a number of quotes about Dog as the Master of Man. This is a simple one:
Half way through, I reminded everyone not to be rooted to the ideas of the sages and saints of the past by believing that somehow they are the only ones who could say wise things. Taste this:
Subject of God has also been favourite with me. This became my most popular Quote:
My love of dogs in general and Roger in particular is a recurring theme with me. Taste this:
I delve a lot into finding answers to Philosophical and Meta-Physical questions; questions about space, universe, God, Religion etc. I have a section called ‘Philosophy’ on my blog, wherein I give vent to these. Here is one of the quotes regarding this:
Love and Hate are subjects of Quotes for me too. Here is a genuine doubt reflected in a quote:
Whilst being on the subject of Love and Hate, here is one about Love and War and the uselessness of loving war:
All of us need some comforting thought or the other. For me, my most grateful thought has been that somehow God has not made me as miserable as He has made others. Thank God for that:
Here is a real tongue-in-cheek on the abundance of Free Advice available on the net these days, including my own!
Mahatma Gandhi believed in Simplicity. I have tried to reason out that most of Life’s lessons are simple indeed. Take a look:
Talking about Simplicity leading to Greatness, I genuinely feel that Being Poor at Heart is a great virtue indeed. The Quote below was as a result of this:
Here is my Quote on the Indian festival of Colour called Holi. This is totally tongue-in-cheek:
Love and Hate continued to fascinate me. One result was:
I considered that no subject is a taboo for me. The following is on the subject of Sex and it generated a fair deal of healthy discussion:
I also make Quotes on my observations. Here is one about great communication skills being mistaken for great knowledge:
Here is a bit of advice about giving and rendering service for others who can do nothing for you except to give you the gift of advice; but, it is the greatest gift.
Here is a humorous take on ‘forgetful husbands’. Is there another kind?
Here is another one on Free Advice:
I asked a genuine doubt if Heart has a Mind of its own. I received a number of smart answers:
And here is one about the place of Ego in Love:
Here is a real good one about the oft touted ‘Out-of-the-box’ thinking. Does it bring a smile on your face?
Here is one about taking on a popular saying and making the logic of it stand on its head. It was very well received:
Here is a dig on the ubiquitous and all powerful auditors: a necessary evil!
Ever heard of a word called Dililady? No? Well read the meaning:
Finally, let me end with one about the Mightier doing horrible things to those whom they find Meek and different; which is half the humanity or more! I cannot forget growing up as a boy belonging to a minority community in a majority state and being subjected to relentless taunts, abuses, innuendo and violence.
I am sure by now I have convinced you to subscribe to
‘Make Your Own Quotes’. What do you have to pay for the subscription? Nothing; not a paisa. It is totally free. All that you have to do is to Like the Page and it would be delivered to you on Facebook. You can make your own quotes and share these too with others.
Author: Sunbyanyname
I have done a long stint in the Indian Navy that lasted for nearly thirty seven years; I rose as far as my somewhat rebellious and irreverent nature allowed me to. On retirement, in Feb 2010, the first thing that occurred to me, and those around me, was that I Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (you will find an article with this title in this blog) and hadn't lost all my noodles and hence thought of a blog titled 'This 'n That'. I later realised that every third blog is called 'This 'n That' and changed the name to 'Sunbyanyname'. I detest treading the beaten track. This blog offers me to air 'another way' of looking at things. The idea is not just to entertain but also to bring about a change. Should you feel differently, you are free to leave your comments. You can leave comments even when you agree and want to share your own experience about the topic of the blog post. Impudent or otherwise, I have never been insousciant and I am always concerned about the betterment of community, nation and the world. I hope the visitors of this blog would be able to discern it.
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Yes; I have got the Comments option back.
Very nice quotes there Ravi and what I liked best was counting advice instead of sheep 🙂
Thank you. Nice to have you back; nice to be back to blogging for me too. Make Your Own Quotes is an on-going page on Facebook. Do visit it sometimes.
As I wrote on the blog, thousands of spam comments put me off and I lost interest in writing. Anyway, I am back after learning how to get rid of the unwanted ones.
I enjoyed reading all of them. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Jeena. I am holidaying in Kandaghat, Shimla Hills. Will be meeting Neo etc on Saturday in Shimla.