By Maddox Starr, 7th grade
Quotes. Merriam Webster defines them as "to speak or write (a passage) from another usually with credit acknowledgment", which is extremely ironic as I am quoting the dictionary in this very sentence.
Regardless, in my own words, I would say a quote is "Legal Plagiarism."
Although the idea may sound completely inconsiderate, quotes are plagiarism. People infrequently cite the work you're quoting, and, when there is no source, the quote transforms into a long string of text indicating that it is not your own words by blatantly tacking on two apostrophes. The sweet irony of all of this is that I use them everyday. From The desolate news, to the antics of The Simpsons, my extravagant use of dialogue and thoughts makes it somewhat part of my personality (for good or for worse).
If said correctly, quotes can add great analysis and ideas while bringing them into a conversation but can be manipulated to turn into the finest disinformation ever to be cherry picked. Despite the whole argument that just had been made, let's talk about my favorite quote.
"The more I start to learn about people, The more I like my dog" is known and behold best quote ever said or written. It is most often credited to Mark Twain, but many other sources debate on the fact. Regardless of the origins, the quote explains humanity in the simplest terms. It explains the creeping thought, that the more and more deeper you go into learning about humanity, the more you start to question it.
The question is, why are humans such foul creatures? One immense aspect is self superiority.
The thought that one human is superior to the other can always be seen. The acts can be seen from bragging to the extreme case of racism and discrimination. Another poison could be the fact of being narcissistic. Even the nicest of humans fall in the trap of being selfish.
An example of this could be how a student could be more worried about a quiz next history class than a war that is happening overseas. Being narcissistic is caring more about themselves over others which all in all, falls in the category of superiority.
Humanity can never be fixed. There will always be human nature that will forever hold humanity back from being peaceful.
Fortunately though, people can learn from history. The dark and the gloomy aspects will always be a lesson to prevent other events in the future.
But like Twain suggests, when the world gets you down, just hang out more with your dog.