You can't understand Twenty-first-Century Politics with an Eighteenth-Century Brain.
George LakoffRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Metaphors are not just linguistic tools but fundamental to our thinking and actions.
George Lakoff emphasizes that metaphors extend beyond mere language; they are deeply embedded in the way we think and behave. Many people underestimate the importance of metaphors in their daily lives, viewing them only as fanciful language rather than recognizing their integral role in shaping our conceptual frameworks and guiding our actions.
Themes
MetaphorThoughtActionLanguageConceptual System
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about creativity, one might quote Lakoff to illustrate the importance of metaphors in inspiring innovation.
More from George Lakoff
All quotes →Do we really think that the United States will have the protection of innocent Afghans in mind if it rains terror down on the Afghan infrastructure? We are supposedly fighting them because they immorally killed innocent civilians. That made them evil. If we do the same, are we any less immoral?
George LakoffRead
The mind is inherently embodied._x000D_ Thought is mostly unconscious._x000D_ Abstract concepts are largely metaphorical.
George LakoffRead
Similar quotes
This overcoming of all the usual barriers between the individual and the Absolute is the great mystic achievement. In mystic states we both become one with the Absolute and we become aware of our oneness. This is the everlasting and triumphant mystical tradition, hardly altered by differences of clime or creed.
William JamesRead
In all the co-temporary discussions and comments, which the Constitution underwent, it was constantly justified and recommended on the ground, that the powers not given to the government, were withheld from it.
James MadisonRead
Terror cannot be finished by one war.
Yitzhak RabinRead
Gardening is the handiest excuse for being a philosopher. Nobody guesses, nobody accuses, nobody knows, but there you are, Plato in the peonies, Socrates force-growing his own hemlock. A man toting a sack of blood manure across his lawn is kin to Atlas letting the world spin easy on his shoulder.
Ray BradburyRead
Countless religious innovators over the years have played the game of establishing an identity for themselves by accentuating their otherness.
Malcolm GladwellRead
Freedom is the power to create out of nothing, the power of the spirit to create out of itself.
Nikolai BerdyaevRead