“Sport is murder” is the free German translation of Winston Churchill’s (died on 24.01.1965) statement on his answer to the mystery of his old age. In the English original the quote reads
„No sports, whisky and cigars.“
Except for „no sports“ with which I can’t go with in any case – the rest sounds pretty good… But back to the topic:
There is a German version of “Sport is murder” by the physician and aphorist Gerhard Uhlenbruck (born on 17. June 1929) which reads as follows
“A beef cattle (German swearword) is one who regards sport only as an ox tour (German for heavy effort), because sport is the murder of various causes of disease.”
And even though I didn’t murder anyone, I’m already in prison with one foot. And that’s only because I wrote these quotes here.
Why? I must do some digging…
Definitions
By definition, quotes are literally quoted text passages, familiar sayings or winged words. A quote is literal, unadulterated and is enclosed in quotation marks. In addition, the quoted person must be indicated.
A saying is a short, easy to remember sentence that usually contains a wisdom or rule of life.
And an aphorism is about the same as a saying, but – as the name suggests – it is more rhetorically adorned.
So far, so good. But why should anyone go to prison for that?
I love quotes
Maybe someone of you (especially those who follow me on Instagram – and for the others there is the Instagram button in the top right corner) has noticed that I like smart quotes and sayings.
After I had decided to start a blog and promote it on Instagram, I collected sayings and quotes wherever I met them. To post them on appropriate occasions and togive you a treat. Just like I’m always happy when I see a cool slogan: At Instagram itself, at Pinterest, in any otherapps, magazines or books and so on…
Everywhere are quotations. Just look how often Steve Jobs is quoted. If you enter Steve Jobs in Google, you will see “Steve Jobs quotes” on second place. The reproduction of clever sayings has become a folk sport (where you don’t lose calories or build muscle mass). I don’t take myself out of it. I like to do it by myself.
I’m sure you’ll ask yourselves, “So what? What does that have to do with going to prison?”
Germany is a constitutional state
In my opinion, laws are really good and indispensable. But sometimes we regulate ourselves to death (without those theresponsible going to prison).
And now to come to the quotations and to the murder association: The correct rules for quoting are – ask or die! So, either you ask the one or the one must be dead for at least 70 years. Then you don’t have to ask anymore. Anyone who can think logically has now quickly concluded that there is a small problem. What do I do if the person is already dead but not long enough? Unfortunately I don’t know either…
In other words, I have already violated the law with the quotes I mentioned at the beginning. Mr Uhlenbruck is still alive (to my knowledge) and I have not asked him and Mr Churchill has not been dead for 70 years.
I cannot use most of my collected sayings as well, because the authors are either unknown, still alive or died too late.
Or I deliberately violate the copyright and hope that no one will notice. Like the most others do. But I don’t really want to. I’m a very law-abiding person, I don’t even cross the street when the traffic light is red.
Or I trust that the originators think it’s cool. Recently I quoted Amaranthe and fortunately they didn’t sue me for it, they liked my post on Instagram.
Copyright & christmas gifts
Fortunately, copyright did not exist 2019 years ago. Because then we would all not get nice presents for Christmas today. Why? Well, because nobody would have dared to quote Jesus, the prophets, the apostles and who else had anything to contribute as a Bible author. Consequently, the Bible would never have been written. No Bible, no Christmas.
It’s a fact that not only the prophets wanted to proclaim a message. Most people want to get something across. I can’t imagine that Steve Jobs would forbid using his quotes. He did have a message. He wanted the world to listen to him. Just like the songwriters. Besides, every quote is advertising. It’s a matter of honour to add the author (if you know him). But is it realistic, if I would like to quote a song line from Metallica, to think that James Hetfield would reply to my inquiry mail?
Your songwriter out there: Write me in the comments or an email, how you think about it! Would you have a problem with being quoted or would you find it totally good if your message was spread?
So…
…and what do we do now?
Creativity is required. We simply come up with our own clever sayings!
If we are not so creative, then we read some quotes and bend them so that they fit us. With a little luck nobody will notice.
It’s best, if we don’t get angry. And if we do, we’ll do sports right away. After that we feel better again! Because of the released happiness hormones…
Therefore don’t forget to look at my quote on Instagram on Wednesday!
Have a good week and – stay tuned!
