People Just Say Stuff

Many people who have ultimately escaped from the tyranny of ignorance have had so hard a fight and so long a time of repression that in the end they are embittered and their energy is impaired. In general, there is too much respect paid to the opinions of others. One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways."
- Bertrand Russell

"People think too much about the opinions others form of them; although this opinion is not essential to happiness...What goes on in other people's consciousness is a matter of indfference to us; and in time we get really indifferent to it, when we come to see how superficial and futile are most people's thoughts, how narrow their ideas, how mean their sentiments, how perverse their opinions, how much of error there is in most of them...We shall understand that to lay great value upon what other people say is to pay them too much honor."
 - Arthur Schopenhauer


I've been thinking about this post for awhile as I really take in the various memes and sayings of the average person and society and how much they contradict reality.

Here are some examples:

• You always have a choice
• Life is a gift
• God loves us
• You can do anything you put your mind to
• God is in control
• ... was better back in the good old days
• Etc, etc (please add your own in the comments)

In accordance with the quotes above and my own personal experience, I no longer take the vast majority of what people say seriously. Most people aren't really thinking when they speak and if you asked them "why?" they couldn't begin to answer.

Don't take it personally.

Thanks for the great advice Russell and I'm doing my best to put it into practice.