“Never underestimate the power of a woman.”

THE FAMOUS LADIES HOME JOURNAL SLOGAN: “Never underestimate the power of a woman!”         A saying popularized by the Ladies Home Journal through its use as an slogan for the magazine and the headline of a recurring cartoon feature        The Ladies Home Journal was first published in 1883 and has been in print ever since. The editors launched “Never underestimate the power of a woman” as a promotional slogan in the March 1941 issue, which featured a painting of a ballerina on the cover.        The editors didn’t use the term “power” exactly as it might be used today. It wasn’t meant to suggest that women have the power to be equal to men in all ways. It was used to mean that women are smarter than men in many ways and have a superior sense of morality. Thus, they have the power to point men “to the right decisions.”        After being launched, the slogan was used for years in each issue as the headline of a cartoon feature. The cartoons demonstrated the power of women to set examples for men and guide them in the right direction.        Interestingly, the March 1941 issue also had a full-page ad for Chesterfield cigarettes inside, showing that tobacco companies and their pre-Mad Men era ad agencies were at least eager to give women an equal right to smoke.

V.I. WARSHAWSKI’S VERSION: “Never underestimate a man’s ability to underestimate a woman.”        Kathleen Turner        American actress        A quip she makes as the title character of the 1991 movie V.I. Warshawski (based on the series of detective novels written by Sara Paretsky)

AN OPTIMIST’S INSPIRING QUOTE “Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.”        Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994)         American athlete who overcame leg damage from childhood polio and went on to became an Olympic gold medalist        This quote by Rudolph is widely cited, though usually without any specific source or date. In his great book Neverisms, quote maven Dr. Mardy Grothe says it was a remark she made shortly after the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, during which she became the first American to win three track-and-field gold medals.

A PESSIMIST’S COUNTERQUOTE: “Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.”        Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988)        American author best known for his science fiction stories and novels        A quip from his time travel novel Time Enough for Love: the Lives of Lazarus Long (1973)

THE FRIENDS (WITH BENEFITS) UPDATE: “Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”         Brendan Bradley        American actor             One of the 100 rules about life of his character Brad in the movie Friends (With Benefits) (2009)

THE TRUE BELIEVERS AXIOM: “Never underestimate the power of the human mind to believe what it wants to believe, no matter the conflicting evidence.”          A quote attributed to the fictional character Caedmon Erb in the sci-fi novel Dune: House Harkonnen (2001), written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson        (The image at left is the logo of The Flat Earth Society.)

THE TESLA CAR RENTAL VARIATION: “Never underestimate the human urge to look like a big-time operator, at least to the valet parking guy.”        Jim Motavalli        American journalist, speaker and book author        In a post on the Mother Nature Network site about Hertz’s recent addition of pricey Tesla electric cars to its rental fleets in certain cities, to appeal to wealthy customers — and wannabe poseurs.

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“The definition of insanity...”

THE FAMOUS EINSTEIN QUOTE HE DIDN’T SAY: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”        Albert Einstein (1879–1955)        German-born theoretical physicist        A saying that is commonly – and wrongly – attributed to Einstein        As noted by quotation scholars like Fred Shapiro (in the Yale Book of Quotations), Garson O’Toole (on his Quote Investigator site), and Barry Popik (on his Big Apple language site), there’s no evidence that Einstein ever wrote or said any such thing. It’s a misattribution.                      The line has also been wrongly attributed to Benjamin Franklin and George Bernard Shaw.         The current evidence suggests that the saying is of anonymous origin and was originally popularized through its use in narcotics and alcohol addiction pamphlets and literature in the early 1980s. During that decade it was used and further popularized by several famous writers and celebrities, such as author Rita Mae Brown (in her 1983 book Sudden Death) and EST guru Werner Erhard (who used a version of it in a 1986 interview).                     By the 1990s, it was being credited it to Einstein. Since then, the erroneous attribution to Einstein is the one most often repeated in books and online posts. It’s quite popular in graphic memes posted on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.         The use and reuse of false and misattributed quotes is frustrating and annoying to nerds like me who care about the accuracy of information about quotations. To me, the definition of inanity is reposting the same false, misattributed quotes over and over again in social media.

THE PASSION PARADOX: “How can someone be busy and not accomplish anything? Well, that’s the passion paradox. If the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results, then passion is a form of mental retardation...The critical work that you want to do will require your deliberation and consideration. Not passion.”        Ryan Holiday        American author, marketer, and media strategist        In a 2017 article on Salon.com arguing that many people who follow the popular advice to find and pursue “your passion” often end up failing, because their “passion” is really just “self-absorption at the expense of reality.”

THE PASSIONATE PRACTICE PRINCIPLE: “Quantity itself is a quality, and it is a quality that is the missing ingredient in so many of the things that we want and that matter to us. Ted Williams was known to spend countless hours every day working to perfect his swing. A brilliant guitarist I know played scales every night in his room growing up until his fingers bled; I’m sure we all have many other examples. These guys were doing something repetitively expecting a different result; they were expecting to get better...Because doing something over and over is not the definition of insanity. It’s the description of pursuing mastery.”        Josh Jonas        Associate Director at The Village Institute for Psychotherapy in Manhattan        In a post on his “Life Lessons” website

THE DRUG WAR PARADOX: “If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, Australia’s war on drugs is madness in its purest form. ‘Just say no’ has been an abject failure. The law enforcement approach has not deterred users, nor has it made communities safer. It has only put lives at risk.”        Jill Stark        Australian author, journalist and human rights activist                     An observation in her 2017 opinion piece on the Australian news and culture site SBS.com that seems to apply equally well to the “Drug War” in the U.S.

THE DEFINITION CONUNDRUM: “One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result. But what do you call it if you do the same thing over and over, and keep achieving different results? Is that sanity? And what do you call it when cancer kills a close friend and that hits you a whole lot harder than the fact that tens of thousands of people you don't know were killed in wars? Is that tough luck? Or just more of the same old life and death?”        Harry Hurt III        American author and journalist                      Lines from the opening paragraph of his interesting thought piece “Is Anybody Necessary? Dr. Ying and the Four Noble Truths,” in the New York Times, January 14, 2006

THE SOCIAL MEDIA CONUNDRUM: “If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, then it’s clear we need a different approach to how we govern, how we make decisions, and how we evaluate the world. Even though the world, on the whole, offers people far more rights and resources than ever before, when every bad thing that happens anywhere is put in front of all of us every minute of the day, it’s hard to feel anything but insecure. When our leaders only react rather than set an agenda and follow through on it (including negotiating and compromising), things only get worse.”        Bradley Tusk        American businessman, political strategist, and writer        Commenting on how the constant barrage of negative social media posts on sites like Twitter and Facebook hurts the American public and our country’s political process in his column on Observer.com

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