Quotation Is Good, But That's Not You

Honestly, this topic has been in my mind for so long. During my primary up to secondary years, during the debate competitions, public speaking, group presentations, and then college life, micro teaching and like, another 88,000 occasions that I care not to mention. Seriously.

Quotations, quotations and quotations. Generally speaking, the habit of using quotations from other individuals, especially the famous ones, is not wrong. From one point of view, it's actually good. Because it proves that you have been reading. It proves that you are aware of the surroundings. It proves that you are well-prepared for discussing or elaborating whatever topic you have in your hands. In short, I can say that quoting words from anybody you look up to is not even bad at all!

But one thing that I'm worried about, and sometimes pissed off with, is when people tend to rely too much on quotations. It's like in their very own brain, there's nothing more but quotations memorized from their entire lives! At this moment, all that I can say is, what the hell is wrong with you people? Come on, there must be other reasons why God gives you a brain other than memorizing words you heard. Can I name one? It's called 'think'.

Look, not all situations that involve you must be debated, or argued, or discussed seriously, that need you to study and learn about. It's not always necessary for you to search the Wikipedia and 'copy' every single sentence. Because most of the time, the thing that really matters is how you feel. I'm not saying that you should speak based on your feelings, ONLY, and ignore all the facts. That would be wrong. It's just that, don't make everything too formal. Sometimes it's okay to say something stupid, share your feelings, without any literature review, and just go with it. Because at least you know that those words you just said came straight from your heart. Original and registered.

I want to suggest to you that whenever you hear a person keeps and keeps and keeps on quoting words from people every time he or she talks and fights in order to prove who's right, you ask this, "That's MJ (let's say MJ's words were quoted here by that person), but what about you? I want YOUR words." I really want to see how they will respond. Can they produce their own ideas? And this is exactly my point, fellow readers.

If you rely too much on quotations, one day you're going to have problems expressing your own ideas. You're going to struggle, and there'll be no quotations available to help you. Be careful, my friend. Don't let your habit destroy you own creativity. You don't realize it, but sometimes you produce something even better than those people you quoted. But you don't see it because you're too busy looking up to them. Just stop doing that for a while and start believing in yourself.