Metaphorical Quotes

• Our tools are extensions of our purposes, and so we find it natural to make metaphorical attributions of intentionality to them; but I take it no philosophical ice is cut by such examples.

  John Searle

  Philosophical, Cutting, Ice

  "Minds, Brains and Programs". Book by John Searle, 1980.

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• Moreover, metaphor is typically viewed as characteristic of language alone, a matter of words rather than thought or action. For this reason, most people think they can get along perfectly well without metaphor. We have found, on the contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.

  George Lakoff

  Thinking, People, Monday Morning

  George Lakoff, Mark Johnson (2008). “Metaphors We Live By”, p.3, University of Chicago Press

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• Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.

  George Lakoff

  Thinking, Everyday, Ordinary

  George Lakoff, Mark Johnson (2008). “Metaphors We Live By”, p.3, University of Chicago Press

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• Metaphors are dangerous. Love begins with a metaphor. Which is to say, love begins at the point when a woman enters her first word into our poetic memory.

  Milan Kundera

  Love, Dream, Memories

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• Metaphors are dangerous. Love begins with a metaphor

  Milan Kundera

  Love Is, Unbearable Lightness Of Being, Metaphor

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• But it then very soon became clear that the response of a war against terrorism, initially conceived of in a metaphorical sense, began to be taken increasingly seriously and came to entail waging a real war.

  Ulrich Beck

  Real, War, Taken

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• Language operates between literal and metaphorical signification

  Robert Smithson

  Artist, Language, Literal

  Robert Smithson, Jack D. Flam (1996). “Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings”, p.61, Univ of California Press

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• What I love about the theatre is that it's always metaphorical. It's like going back to being a kid again, and we're all pretending in a room. Sometimes, when the pretending really works, I find it much, much more moving than something on film.

  Mark Haddon

  Moving, Kids, Theatre

  "Mark Haddon: 'What I love about theatre is that it's like being a kid again'". Interview with Carole Cadwalladr, www.theguardian.com. March 27, 2010.

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• A great brand is a story that’s never completely told. A brand is a metaphorical story that connects with something very deep – a fundamental appreciation of mythology. Stories create the emotional context people need to locate themselves in a larger experience.

  Scott Bedbury

  Inspirational, Appreciation, Business

  "If the name fits ....", www.theguardian.com. January 7, 2001.

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• I played to win. When I was a child, my brothers and I played cowboys and Indians in the park, and I was always an Indian who got captured. That was a learning experience; they were showing me that as a woman I was going to be captured. But in a metaphorical sense, I think I did eventually become a cowboy.

  Ita Buttrose

  Education, Brother, Children

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• It is important to realize that whatever we do or design has iconographic references, it comes from somewhere; any form is always metaphorical, never totally metaphysical; it is never a 'destiny' but always a fact with some kind of historical reference. To put an object on a base means to monumentalize it, to make everyone aware it exists.

  Ettore Sottsass

  Mean, Destiny, Design

  Barbara Radice, Ettore Sottsass (1993). “Ettore Sottsass: A Critical Biography”, Rizzoli International Publications

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• The spiritual mind is always metaphorical. Spiritual thinking is poetic thinking. It's always trying to put a very diaphanous experience into words, realizing all the while that words are inadequate.

  Sam Keen

  Spiritual, Thinking, Always Trying

  Source: www.scottlondon.com

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• I find it interesting that authors of fantasy and science fiction novels are rarely asked if their books are based on their personal experiences, because all writing is based on personal experience. I may not have gone on an epic quest through a haunted forest, but the feelings in my books are often based on feelings I've had. Real-life events, in fantasy and science fiction, can take on metaphorical significance that they can't in a so-called realistic novel.

  Malinda Lo

  Book, Writing, Epic

  Source: www.hbook.com

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• The crucifixion saved him [Jesus]. He never had to deal with the fact that the kingdom of God wasn't ever going to come. His disciples, of course, had to deal with it, and little by little they had to realize that it's a metaphorical thing. Well, that's not what Jesus meant. I'm fairly sure he meant it literally. But he must have been the most fascinating man.

  Philip Pullman

  Jesus, Men, Littles

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• The fantastical images in my works are descriptive in a different way - a metaphorical way - that removes you from reality. Then, this visually removed point of view allows you to deal with a very heavy subject.

  Signe Baumane

  Reality, Views, Way

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• Think about what artists, novelists and poets have in common: the ability to engage in metaphorical thinking, linking seemingly unrelated ideas, such as, 'It is the east, and Juliet is the Sun.'

  Vilayanur S. Ramachandran

  Motivation, Inspiration, Artist

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• Human language is mythological and metaphorical by nature.

  W. H. Auden

  Language, Humans, Human Language

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• Never let failure discourage you. Every time you get to the base of a mountain (literal or metaphorical), you're presented with a new opportunity to challenge yourself, to push your limits beyond what you thought possible, to learn from climbers on the trail ahead of you, and to take in some amazing views. Your performance on the mountain you climbed last week or last month or last year doesn't matter - because it's all about what you are doing right now.

  Alison Levine

  Opportunity, Views, Years

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• The economy is just a metaphorical device, it’s not real. That's why it's got the word con in it.

  Russell Brand

  Real, Economy, Devices

  Russell Brand (2014). “Revolution”, p.213, Ballantine Books

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• When dams were erected on the Columbia, salmon battered themselves against the concrete, trying to return home. I expect no less from us. We too must hurl ourselves against and through the literal and metaphorical concrete that contains and constrains us, that keeps us from talking about what is most important to us, that keeps us from living the way our bones know we can, that bars us from our home. It only takes one person to bring down a dam.

  Derrick Jensen

  Home, Talking, Important

  Derrick Jensen (2004). “A Language Older Than Words”, p.75, Chelsea Green Publishing

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• Poetry is the establishment of a metaphorical link between white butterfly-wings and the scraps of torn-up love-letters.

  Carl Sandburg

  Butterfly, Wings, White

  Carl Sandburg (2003). “The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg”, p.319, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The only moment football really stops is with a penalty kick - and that is a moment that is really dramatic. A penalty kick becomes a Western duel. It's two guys facing each other. Destiny and potential death, whether metaphorical or literal. That's why in the penalty kick at the end of the film, I shot it like an homage to the Sergio Leone Westerns I saw when I was a kid, especially The Good, The Bad And The Ugly.

  Carlos Cuaron

  Football, Kids, Destiny

  Source: editorial.rottentomatoes.com

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• The musical mystery is: How do you marry tuned percussion and voice? On a metaphorical level, everything that's really important - like the clouds, the sky and the earth - is a giant mystery.

  Mickey Hart

  Musical, Important, Earth

  Source: www.rollingstone.com

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• I think there are shades of political songs; some are more subtle and can be more effective for being subtle, for being more metaphorical. I've written a lot of songs like that, where it's not really clear if it's a war song or a relationship song. The metaphor can be the most powerful thing of all, but sometimes you have to speak more clearly to more people, and I think this is one of those times.

  Richard Thompson

  Song, Powerful, War

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• I always go into listening to a new record by Gord Downie solo or The Tragically Hip and think, "Well, I know what this is going to be, lyrically." Every song starts and then I think, "Oh, I have no idea where that comes from." He has this entirely original voice, both literal and metaphorical.

  John K. Samson

  Song, Thinking, Listening

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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