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timtyler comments on Rationality Quotes - June 2009 - Less Wrong
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I can't speak for others, but I find the value of a quote to be almost completely independent of its originator. (exception being when the originator is someone like Hitler; that's a short list, though)
I'm not a fan of this particular quote, though, because I can't tell if it's sarcastic or serious. (I've never played the lottery, but I wouldn't expect it to make me feel rich; voting doesn't make me feel powerful. I'm just not sure what it's attempting to communicate.)
EDIT: what orthonormal said. Also, before anyone docks me for the same reason, the reason I would refrain from quoting Hitler (assuming he ever said anything worth quoting) is because I know that many, many other people can't separate ideas from sources. Plus why would I be reading Mien Kampf??
I find the value of a quote to be highly dependent on the identity of its originator.
This allows me to quickly filter out all kinds of nonsense by known idiots - for example by using killfiles.
Surely you guys are not claiming that there is no correlation between author and value! That would seem like "everyone's equal" political correctness taken to extremes!
I agree, if we're talking about books. Further, I agree that some people are way better at making good quotes than others.
But even a broken clock is right twice a day-- and if someone has taken the trouble to excerpt a quote from an author (i.e., they have pre-filtered it for me), it does not take me significantly more time to read the quote than it does to verify that I like the originator. (Unless I know I'm unlikely to agree with the aesthetics of the person who made the excerpt, but that's a different story entirely!)