QuoteProject
I see the origin of the irresistible attraction of metaphor and analogy, the explanation of our strange and permanent need to find similarities in things. I can scarcely refrain from suspecting some ancient, diffused magnetism; a call from the center of things; a dim, almost lost memory, or perhaps a presentiment, pointless in so puny a being, of a universal syntax.
Roger Caillois
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on our inherent desire to find connections and similarities in the world around us.

Roger Caillois discusses our deep-seated need for metaphor and analogy, suggesting that it points to a universal connection that underlies human experience. He evokes the idea that this need may stem from an ancient, perhaps instinctual understanding of the world, hinting at a 'universal syntax' that governs our perceptions and relationships.

Themes

MetaphorAnalogySimilaritiesConnectionUniversal

In practice

Example use cases

In a lecture on creativity, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of drawing connections in the arts.

Similar quotes

Your believing or not believing in karma has no effect on its existence, nor on its consequences to you. Just as a refusal to believe in the ocean would not prevent you from drowning.
F. Paul WilsonRead
The time when there is nothing at all in your soul except a cry for help may be just that time when God can't give it: you are like the drowning man who can't be helped because he clutches and grabs. Perhaps your own reiterated cries deafen you to the voice you hoped to hear.
C. S. LewisRead
There was something awesome in the thought of the solitary mortal standing by the open window and summoning in from the gloom outside the spirits of the nether world.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
It is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, ina government ship, with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one's being alone.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Logic is not a body of doctrine, but a mirror-image of the world. Logic is transcendental.
Ludwig WittgensteinRead
Jesus, the Word incarnate, is always the center of our announcement, the point of reference for our evangelizing mission and for its methodology, because He is the human face of God, who wishes to meet all men and women so as to bring them into communion with Him, in His love.
Pope Benedict XviRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.