One that comes to mind for me: “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is not always true. Maybe even only half the time! Are there any phrases you tend to hear and shake your head at?
I was told ”a samurai can’t chop down a tree unless he uses the right tool for the right job” because I was seeking help from outside a transitional program (LifeWorks at WKU) because I didn’t trust my staff there and they were making me work a job I didn’t want at the time.
I think the person who told me that was geeking out because he read too much Bruce Lee.
More importantly, I was seeking help because I wanted to get out of LifeWorks because I didn’t like it and everyone was convincing me to stay.
“History repeats itself” or “history doesn’t repeat itself, but rhymes”. If that were the case then it would be pretty easy to predict the future.
The reality is humans have evolved to try to find patterns in a given system. It’s what made us really good hunters and excellent tool builders.
“Religion is a personal choice.”
Rarely is that true.
“which begs the question …”
I hate this phrase a lot. First, it comes from the term ‘begging the question’ which is a stupid name for a particular type of logical fallacy that doesn’t even make sense for its intended meaning. But no one uses in the intended way anyway. They use it to mean “raises the question” or “prompts the question”.
As in: John hasn’t been to work for a couple days, which begs the question ‘is he sick?’". No it doesn’t beg the question, it raises it. You beg for something, so you can beg a person for money or beg a dog to stop barking, etc. but you can’t beg a question for anything.
So it’s a doubly stupid phrase that makes me cringe every time I hear it whether it’s used “correctly” or not.
“You can not buy intelligence”
But the product of appearing intelligent is sold: private Education. Also you need to be able to afford the right condition: Not starving to death to appear intelligent, afford food & afford some water without lead contamination (since lead in the water lowers IQ), lead pipes where used for drinking water in poorer areas … Also research and innovation costs lot of upfront capital investment and connections nowadays.