Tyranny and fantasy both like to write everyone else's lines.

The happy and the suffering probably understand life equally well, but the sufferers may see a little more clearly how little it is that they understand.

Metaphor isn't just a fancy turn of speech. It shapes our thoughts and feelings, reaches out to grasp new experience, and even binds our five disparate senses. James Geary's fascinating and utterly readable I is an Other brings the news on metaphor from literature and economics, from neuroscience and politics, illuminating topics from consumer behavior to autism spectrum disorders to the evolution of language. As a writer, as a teacher, and as someone just plain fascinated by how our minds work, I've been waiting years for exactly this book.

There are silences harder to take back than words.

What is more yours than what always holds you back?

It is the empty seats that listen most raptly.

The best way to know your faults is to notice which ones you accuse others of.