"I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose"

This quote by George Carlin is a funny take on the idea of self-help. It suggests that the purpose of self-help is to discover the answers within oneself, instead of depending on another person to supply them. The saleswoman's action is a creative way of stating that if she told the customer where the self-help section was, it would remove the consumer's chance to discover the responses by themselves. This quote is a tip that sometimes the best way to find the responses we are looking for is to look within ourselves. It likewise functions as a suggestion that in some cases the responses we look for are not constantly simple to find, and that it is very important to be client and trust in our own capabilities.