"Money can't buy happiness," "looks don't matter," "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger": chances are you've heard all of these popular sayings more than a dozen times. Or even said them yourself—but do you really believe them? It's easy to say that money can't buy happiness for someone for whom money isn't a problem. But for someone who struggles to make ends meet and keep a roof over their head, money sure does bring at least some happiness or relief.

This week, one Reddit user asked others to share which popular sayings they find to be complete rubbish. As always, hundreds of people participated in the discussion, mentioning some really common sayings and explaining why they're nonsense. Scroll down below to read the best 45 replies and vote for the ones you agree with!

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#1

"Money can't buy happiness."

Poverty can't buy anything.

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Bender Bending Rodríguez
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yep. This is the highest order of bullshittery. Money may not buy happiness but it will definitely buy comfort to make me forget about my miseries.

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#2

"The Customer is Always Right." Because half of it's missing. The full truism is "The Customer is Always Right in matters of taste."

Guy wants a pint of half baileys, half orange juice? He's paying...

Lady wants to wear a raw turkey as a hat? You do you love...

What it doesn't mean is that Kyle and Karen get free reign to treat people like [crap] because they happen to be handing over money at some stage of the interaction.

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KatHat
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Spineless managers who "comp" things and give people everything they want contribute to this. The US is about the worst place I have been for badly behaved customers and I've lived in four countries.

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#3

"There's plenty of fish in the sea"

You know what else there's plenty of in the sea? Trash.

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#4

‘If you can’t handle me at my worst you don’t deserve me at my best’

This is like toxic relationship starter pack stuff

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Octavia Hansen
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is a statement I have heard when they are ready to bail at the first sign of someone else's problems.

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#5

'What doesnt kill you just makes you stronger'..... bull. 2x cancer survivor here, it sure didnt make me any stronger...

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#6

"Looks don't matter."

They do. Not always, not completely, but they very much do matter. Humans are kind of superficial in that regard.

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Brandon Collinsworth
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes they matter, the real truth to this saying is that not everyone finds the same things attractive.

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#7

"It doesn't matter who started it."

Of course it does. Even legally the concept of who did what first is recognized as vital.

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konnarw1
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

finally, someone who agrees with me. lol I think we can all relate reply if you do

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#8

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Nah mate, it just gives you trauma.

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#9

“Good things come to those who wait.”

Try waiting your whole life and see what comes to you.

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I'm a makeup addict
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think that's an untrue quote too. if you want something good you have to work for it.

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#10

"it's just how I am." Well you're a [damn prick], change your behavior and act like a decent human!

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#11

"Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are college dropouts"

Dude they went to Harvard, not community college.!

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Mewton’s Third Paw
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hate when people use this one. Although I still agree you don’t need to have a degree to be a successful entrepreneur. But not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. There’s no such thing as a college dropout surgeon.

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#12

“Happiness is a choice.” That’s maybe sometimes a little true, but depression is real, and it’s not what anyone chose.

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Sora desu
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Exactly! It’s the same as saying well having an asthma attack is a choice just breathe

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Stille20
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Depression is not the opposite of happiness and it isn't the same as sadness. It may make it harder to find happiness. You can have chronic depression and make choices that bring you peace and happiness.

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Best.in.the.west
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If happiness was a choice I wouldnt be a sad bean on a couch scrolling through bored panda

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Carol Lewis
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This one really irritates me. I have suffered depression and anxiety from childhood. Must be on meds to function. I didn't choose this.

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Fixin'Ta
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, don't get me started on this one. People who have been through trauma, people who have PTSD, have trauma-wired brains (literally physically altered) and it takes a danged awful lot of therapy to reach the place where you can rewire and choose how you respond to things. Sometimes I CAN'T choose how my brain or body respond to something that flips my triggers. It's just how my brain works. I can use the tools I'm gathering in therapy to moderate negative thinking and behaviors, but I'm not to the "choose joy/happiness" place yet. (Also, being "triggered" isn't shameful -- it's a legit thing that happens to people who have endured trauma.)

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Marnie
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I agree with this, but to be a bit nit-picky, happiness is not the opposite of clinical depression.

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Neva Nevičica
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So, about editing the comments. See the three little dots to the right side of your name? Click on them, and two options should open: edit and delete. That's it :). As to why am i answering here instead of the thread where you asked me the question: i don't know why, but there is no 'reply' option under every comment, i guess there's an option to reply only once to people or something. Stupid, in any case. There, i hoped i helped. :)

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BabaBizzle
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Tell that to clinically depressed folk. It is not a choice. It’s a chemically induced state that some people do not have .

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Damon Gates
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So how do I make and execute such a choice? The devil is in the details.

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sarunas ardickas
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Personally, never heard this one, as it sound so stupid. Yes, dude, i chose to be unhappy

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Sandra Llewelyn
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But we do chose it by continuing to react negatively to others actions towards us, we talk ourselves in to it and we can talk ourselves out of it.

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Oliver Prime
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hmm. Yes. Like being single is a choice. It wasn't my first choice...

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Grady'sRaider
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There is happy, neutral, and sad. Neutral is highly underrated.

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Natalia
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Once i had a friend. At that point i was really disappointed of my life, single, bad working conditions with no future, bad financial, family problems etc. The only support i got from her was "stop whining! Everything in life is a matter of choice!" Not my friend anymore...and that was my choice!

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Tabitha L
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Happiness is a choice. Ok. I'm going to kidnap you, tie you up in my basement, and beat you daily. Are you going to be "choosing happiness".

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Anna McHugh
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh God, no, not 'happiness is a choice'. That one deserves a foot in the kisser.

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Mary Lovill
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was a depressed puppy when I was younger due to parental abuse. When I was younger, “suicidal,” was a word my doctor placed on my chart one day and put me on happy pills and then told me not to get off of them cold turkey or I would spiral out of control. Not only did I get off of them cold turkey because they made me feel like a zombie, but I decided to choose happiness because when I made that conscious choice to be happy and to be positive my life changed. There are people who suffer from things like bi-polar disease and chemical depression ( meaning you don’t choose to be depressed, the chemicals in your brain choose for you), but if that is not the case, Happiness is indeed a choice....

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lara
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3 years ago

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Depression is the result of a chemical imbalance in your brain. Finding the proper medication will be a process, but once you do, that's it. You are back in balance.

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Octavia Hansen
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3 years ago

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Think of this in simpler terms: television offers comedy or tragic news. You can choose happiness.

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Erin Kavik
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But picking the happy options doesn't magically cure depression, which is what the phrase gets aimed at.

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#13

Everything happens for a reason. (Like rape, murder, death of children, starvation, genocide, etc). Or my favorite, God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.

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Uncommon Boston
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3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Recently someone told me a string of these statements. The underlying message, it will never happen to her. So, God let me have cancer; because of previous trauma, he knew I could handle it? The God I pray to is compassionate, loving, forgiving, and loves me. Nothing happens for reason, really? Explain cancer, abusive parents, and the rest. Yes I am stronger from surviving all it, so I deserve more? Her smug smile said she believed this was the appropriate response, she was being supportive, and kind. I was speechless. It is was a reminder of how painful words from a stranger can be. A skill I do not want or admire (Cancer was not traumatic, only stage 2, death was not an issue, the months of treatment were just annoying. I cried once. The doctors thought I was brave, I wasn't. My tears, frustration and anger were already used up.)

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#14

"Life is like a box of chocolate. You never know what you're gonna get." Every box of chocolate I have seen has a little book that tells you what you'll get.

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#15

When someone tells a depressed person "just exercise and drink water." [Hell], I barely have enough motivation to breathe, what makes you think I'm gonna get up to exercise.

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Caitlin Davenport
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Telling a depressed person that they just need to exercise and drink water will only add to their guilt. Sometimes, they just need antidepressants.

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#16

"Practice makes perfect!"

I had a teacher that used to point out that no, practice makes permanent. If you practice something in an incorrect way, you're going to perform incorrectly.

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Viviane
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In some situations, the expression is "The perfect is the enemy of the good". High standards are fine, but insisting on perfection will blow through deadlines.

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#17

“Sleep is for the weak” or “I’ll sleep when I die” Well actually, not sleeping is making you weaker and decreasing your lifespan as you gloat about it right now. Sleep is essential people.

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Bender Bending Rodríguez
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love my sleep. Anyone who believes these can GTFO and turn off the lights on the way out. Please and thank you. PS: Don't forget the door.

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#18

You don't need money to be happy.

Usually this quote is being used by those who are already filthy rich

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Uncommon Boston
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Money buys food. A full belly feels much better than a hallow aching one. Not everyone sleeps in a bed. Some by choice, others due to circumstances they have no control of. Clean clothes that fit are wonderful. Worrying constantly about having money to pay bills is miserable. No health care! The list goes on. People's life's can be fundamentally changed with a larger fair income. Those with money do not want part with it. They can never have enough and have the power to change the rules to help them keep it. They need lots of money to be happy.

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#19

"Einstein wasn't good in school" he was a very good student with good marks

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#20

"Violence is never the answer."

It isn't usually the answer. But occasionally...it really is.

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Malakai
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sometimes, it is. My friends and I used to get bullied by this group of boys in middle school (they targeted one girl in particular). One day, we were playing card games when two of them sat next to us, uninvited, and the rest stood by the table, blocking us in. They started making fun of us and being asses, but we tried to ignore them and continued playing, so they took our cards, threw them everywhere and even started tearing them up. The 'ringleader' had sat next to me, and idk WHAT possessed me to do it, but I promptly turned around and SLAMMED his head into the wall as hard as I could. He and his buddies started calling me crazy but they scrambled away, and they left us alone after that.

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#21

"A watched pot never boils."

It does, I've checked.

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#22

“If you tell me the truth you won’t get into trouble”

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#23

Using the phrase, "it's just a few bad apples," to protect an institution when the full proverb says, " a few bad apples spoils the bunch."

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Soap
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Like if one apple is moldy, would you still eat the rest that were sitting with the moldy one?

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#24

Be yourself. If you're a [prick] and even the nice people hate you, then you should change and not be yourself

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KatHat
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes, this is often used as an excuse for people not to be self-aware and not to be considerate of others. No one should have to subsume their entire personality to make others happy but you don't get to be an asshole and demand everyone love you, either.

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#25

Hard work never killed anyone

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#26

This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.

LIES!!

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#27

“Sleep like a baby”. It implies that babies sleep really well. My second is 4 days old; I can confirm babies don’t sleep well.

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Mosheh Wolf
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Like the old joke: "How are you sleeping?", "like a baby - I wake up crying every two hours".

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#28

You can achieve anything you set your mind to.

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Octavia Hansen
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Only if you are practical concerning your goals. I'm too old to be a gymnast but I can play piano like Elton John.

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#29

"It's better to ask forgiveness than permission." Yeah eventually people are just gonna stop forgiving you.

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Mosheh Wolf
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3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It is a quote from Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, and it is related to being from an underprivileged group. It also does not mean that a person can do anything and then ask for forgiveness. It means that, when a person sees that an important action needs to be taken, they should do it, and not wait for permission. It does NOT mean that you should "borrow" your neighbor's Lamborghini for a joy ride, and then apologize.

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#30

If you love something set it free...

Uh no if you love something smother it with affection until you catch the early flight home and catch a couple naked dudes tag teaming your fiancé

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