Taken out of context, most "inspirational quotes" seems to me to be startlingly vapid. 1. "Be the change you want to see in the world." How? This might just

Taken out of context, most "inspirational quotes" seems to me to be startlingly vapid. 1. "Be the change you want to see in the world." How? This might just mean, "It's up to you to change the world," (a questionable assumption), but this actually says to "be change." What the hell does that mean? 2. "The real leader has no need to lead -- he is content to point the way." Leaving aside the fact that Henry Miller is a questionable authority on this subject, one might wonder what leadership would actually look like if the leader actually did nothing but "point the way." 3. "A leader is a dealer in hope." Let's hope the CEO doesn't come in Monday morning with this one. 4. "To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult." Why? I could go on (and on and on). I don't mean, of course, to impugn the authority of Napoleon, Gandhi, Nietzsche, or Miller (maybe Miller in this case). But I do think little micro-quotes from these thinkers are not simply poor substitutes for their writings, but distillations of those writings into near nothingness. There are writers who are very aphoristic, but damn few of them. Most set their clever phrases within a much wider web of contemplation and argument. The person who mistakes one thing for the other is likely succumbing to the illusion that they are learning something.