The fact that I run a quotes bot (Hi, QuoteBot (npub1qys…xavg) ) notwithstanding, quotes can be dangerous. There's something very sneaky, almost deceptive, about them. By selectively picking out individual sentences or phrases, you can make almost any text sound profound and then take that new profundity and transfer it to your own lukewarm ideas.
It's a powerful way of taking a terrible idea and sprucing it up for popular support. The classic case is bible verses: Take a single sentence of scripture, divorce it from all context, and assign your own new meaning. Now you can speak with the stolen authority of God's word!
But really, it can be done with anything. Literary works. Philosophical texts. Other people's speeches. I've even seen Mein Kampf used like this, although I guess it depends who your audience is!