1) Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough. – Oprah Winfrey
This is great if you already have most of the basics in life. It doesn’t work quite so well when you’re trying to convince a person who can’t afford food that he should be thankful. Logically he should be concentrating on what he doesn’t have, food, else he will starve. This is no more than an attempt at make the poor believe they should be happy with their lot.
2) That which does not kill us makes us stronger. – Friedrich Nietzsche
Looks great, sounds great, but rubbish. You do countless things every day that neither kills you nor makes you stronger. Losing a child doesn’t kill you but can cause you to be depressed for the rest of your life. There’s literally hundreds of examples, add your own. Nietzsche’s original quote was never meant to include all people, as can be seen below.
Nietzsche original quote was: “Aus der Kriegsschule des Lebens. Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker,” which can be translated as “Out of life’s school of war, what doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.” He expanded on the idea somewhat in his autobiography, Ecco Homo. Here he refers to select individuals as “nature’s lucky stroke among men,” and says of such a person, “He divines remedies for injuries; he knows how to turn serious accidents to his own advantage; that which does not kill him makes him stronger.”
3) Rules are made to be broken. – Douglas MacArthur
No they’re not. They are made to be adhered to else we may as well have no rules and allow everyone to do as he or she pleases. To live and function as a society we need rules. Depending on the rules you choose to break you could end up with a criminal record or be endangering yourself or others. Even when the results are not as bad as that you could still be interfering on the rights of others and create a problem in their lives. In most cases you are not a rebel, you are an ignorant and selfish asshole.
4) Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. – George Carlin
This is mostly accurate. Still I feel this is a quote that should never be mentioned. In the majority of cases where I’ve seen it being used it was used by people losing an argument against a group of individuals that know more about the subject under discussion. The Dunning–Kruger effect in action.
Here’s an article worth reading Why people get more stupid in a crowd and how it contrast with the “wisdom of crowds”.