Quotes and Why We Love Them

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We seem to spend a considerable part of our week scanning for suitable bon mots to engrave on our products that make us laugh, cry or think. And occasionally our creative juices really get going and we make them up ourselves. They can be funny, punny, serious or inspirational, but they need to have a meaningful impact on whoever is lucky enough to receive an engraved piece, a phrase or motto that simply touches that person. And we are constantly inspired by our clever clients who dream up, find or have personal family phrases and sayings that clearly inspire a sense of belonging and validation in the lucky recipient.

So this got us wondering why do human beings love quotes so much? Quotes that are inspirational, funny or learned. Quotes about love, life and relationships. We print them on T-shirts, tattoo them on our limbs, use them in our writings, but especially we love them beautifully engraved on meaningful items that we can look at everyday (luckily for us).

But why? Why do quotes and sayings make us feel good? According to creativelive.com one of the greatest human motivations is to fit into categories or types of people and feel happy when we’re there. Also the idea behind a quote can be really effective to our own thought processes, so reading other people’s thoughts can help us create our own ideas.

Inspirational quotes affirm our own thoughts and empower us to think and act further, inspiring us to move forward. They encourage us to continue in our chosen direction and keep going, or alternatively to change tack and go in another. Humans need to fit in to their chosen societies with other humans and quotes are cognitive advice that help us feel that we fit in. They can guide our behaviour and support our motives. The message makes us feel as if we’ve joined club, albeit in a very subtle way.

Inspirational quotes are refined concepts that say just what we were thinking or would like to think but in a clever, salient way. They reinforce our beliefs about ourselves and they define us as a certain kind of person.

BE THERE FOR OTHERS, BUT NEVER LEAVE YOURSELF BEHIND. Dodinsky

In times of hardship and self-doubt quotes can pick us up and motivate us to keep going. They can be a comfort to us and speak to us when we are at a low ebb. They may not be the be-all-and-end-all, but they can give us that little nudge that can point us in the right direction.

SUCCESS IS NOT FINAL, FAILURE IS NOT FATAL,

IT IS THE COURAGE TO CONTINUE THAT COUNTS Winston Churchill

And then there are funny quotes. The ones that make us smile and cheer us up when we see them. They remind us that everything has a funny side, poke fun at us and stop us from taking ourselves too seriously. They can remind us of fun occasions and events that we can relate to.

I REFUSE TO JOIN ANY CLUB THAT WOULD HAVE ME A MEMBER Groucho Marx

YOU HAVE TO BE ODD TO BE NUMBER ONE Dr Zeuss

WE DIDN’T REALISE WE WERE MAKING MEMORIES, WE JUST KNEW WE WERE HAVING FUN A.A. Milne

And of course there are quotes about love and relationships that can touch, speak to and comfort us. They can restore our faith and be a mantra for living, a code to live by.

I HAVE LOOKED AT YOU IN A MILLION WAYS AND AND I HAVE LOVED YOU IN EACH.

WHERE THERE IS LOVE THERE IS LIFE. Mahatma Gandhi

A LIFE LIVED IN LOVE WILL NEVER BE DULL.

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE. Lennon & McCartney

Then there are the quotes that are a code for living.

LIFE IS A JOURNEY. DON’T BE A PASSENGER. Abdul Basit

DO AS YOU WOULD BE DONE BY. Charles Kingsley

DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY. Bobby McFerrin

We pass these mantras down through our family lines and gradually they seep into our DNA. Not every quote of course means something to everyone. They are highly personal, but the right ones validate, direct and empower us in our day-to-day lives and our futures. They make us part of a society of like-minded people and give us a communal sense of well-being and fitting-in. So whether we engrave them on a peg-rail, a chopping board or a chess board, we identify with them and the power of language, and we always wish we’d said them ourselves.