powerion,
just want to jump in and say that, I made the most strides in my personal growth when I took on the stance that I was born with everything necessary to understand anything in the universe regardless of other people's opinions or exclamations. To truly understand the world, you have to understand how to interpret everything for yourself and not rely on others quotes or statements.
A person's intelligence of the modern world relies on so much referenced material that it appears like most people simply memorize details and don't have the capacity to think for themselves- and when this happens, are you really knowing anything or just passively traversing someone's journey other than your own?..
It's okay to quote various people, but I wouldn't use the quotes to prove a point. In order to prove anything, you have to be willing to argue your case from your own point of view- which relies on knowing yourself. How can you know yourself?- this is an open-ended question that I'm just throwing out for you to think about..