What are Quotes?

Quotes are phrases that can be interpret in many different ways to many people. I've been speaking of familiar quotes that we've may of heard of and what those quotes mean to me. In really I don't know what a quote can mean to another person that isn't me. We all have different perspectives of things and especially when it comes to quotes. A quote can be the same, but it can mean something good for one person and something bad for another.
One quote is "What really matters is what you do with what you have" by H.G Wells. It all depends on what you understand from the quote. For example, to me it could be saying that what am I going to do with my life. All the things that I am going or have in life what am I going to do with that for my future.
Quotes can be confusing which is maybe one of the reasons we have very different views about them. If you pay close attention to what it is saying you can be asking yourself questions. For example, in the quote above what can they be talking about with saying "what you have". It can be your cell phone, your pet, or your education. This is something I ask myself, but you tell me what does it mean to you?