Don't Quote Me...
The word is aphorism, a word I didn't know. And I wasn't alone. Here's how television host Hoda Kotb put it in her book of quotations: I'd never heard of it until I started doing some digging into why so many of us --including me-- love inspirational quotes. Sociologist Murray Davis describes aphorisms as "the finest thoughts in the fewest words." ...Media psychology expert and communications consultant Scott Sobel says that "inspirational quotes affect us on a primal level." Describing human nature as "aspirational" performance psychologist Jonathan Fader says quotes can be powerful in changing our thinking and helping us see something in ourselves that we want to change or overcome. As I read through her book, I somehow couldn't help but think of the many times I had said or heard the expression "thank God," as in "luckily no one was hurt, thank God." Which made me also wonder when we use that phrase -...