Create Yours

Top 20 James Geary Quotes (2025 Update)

James Geary Quote: “In the margin for error lies all our room for maneuver.”

1. “In the margin for error lies all our room for maneuver.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “A simile is just a metaphor with the scaffolding still up.”

2. “A simile is just a metaphor with the scaffolding still up.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “Heroism often results as a response to extreme events.”

3. “Heroism often results as a response to extreme events.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “Sometimes, you need a door slammed in your face before you can hear opportunity knock.”

4. “Sometimes, you need a door slammed in your face before you can hear opportunity knock.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “Metaphor lives a secret life all around us. We utter about six metaphors a minute. Metaphorical thinking is essential to how we understand ourselves and others, how we communicate and learn, discover and invent.”

5. “Metaphor lives a secret life all around us. We utter about six metaphors a minute. Metaphorical thinking is essential to how we understand ourselves and others, how we communicate and learn, discover and invent.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “The mind revels in conjecture. Where information is lacking, it will gladly fill in the gaps.”

6. “The mind revels in conjecture. Where information is lacking, it will gladly fill in the gaps.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “Metaphors hide in plain sight, and their influence is largely unconscious. We should mind our metaphors, though, because metaphors make up our minds.”

7. “Metaphors hide in plain sight, and their influence is largely unconscious. We should mind our metaphors, though, because metaphors make up our minds.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “Advice is given freely because so much of it is worthless.”

8. “Advice is given freely because so much of it is worthless.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “Aphorisms are literature’s hand luggage. Light and compact, they fit easily into the overhead compartment of your brain.”

9. “Aphorisms are literature’s hand luggage. Light and compact, they fit easily into the overhead compartment of your brain.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “You only really discover the strength of your spine when your back is against the wall.”

10. “You only really discover the strength of your spine when your back is against the wall.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “These experiments demonstrate the conceptual synesthesia connecting our ideas of the concrete experience of space and the abstract experience of time. Our concept of physical motion through space is scaffolded onto our concept of chronological motion through time. Experiencing one-indeed, merely thinking about one-influences our experience of and thoughts about the other, just as the theory of embodied cognition suggests.”

11. “These experiments demonstrate the conceptual synesthesia connecting our ideas of the concrete experience of space and the abstract experience of time. Our concept of physical motion through space is scaffolded onto our concept of chronological motion through time. Experiencing one-indeed, merely thinking about one-influences our experience of and thoughts about the other, just as the theory of embodied cognition suggests.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “Why should jokes and metaphors give such pleasure? Because we can’t stand very much ambiguity. Cognitive dissonance makes us uneasy, and for good reason-survival depends on making the world as predictable as possible. So when we figure something out, when we impose order on what seems chaotic, we heave a psychological sigh of relief.”

12. “Why should jokes and metaphors give such pleasure? Because we can’t stand very much ambiguity. Cognitive dissonance makes us uneasy, and for good reason-survival depends on making the world as predictable as possible. So when we figure something out, when we impose order on what seems chaotic, we heave a psychological sigh of relief.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “In Second Nature: Brain Science and Human Knowledge, Edelman theorizes that the human brain’s astonishing interconnectivity produces consciousness and, because of the astronomical number of associations our brains are capable of making, pattern recognition is the basis not just for metaphorical thinking but for all thinking.”

13. “In Second Nature: Brain Science and Human Knowledge, Edelman theorizes that the human brain’s astonishing interconnectivity produces consciousness and, because of the astronomical number of associations our brains are capable of making, pattern recognition is the basis not just for metaphorical thinking but for all thinking.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “A kenning is a metaphorical circumlocution consisting of paired nouns or a noun phrase. For example, in ancient Icelandic verse, a sword is not a sword but an “icicle of blood”; a ship is not a ship but the “horse of the sea”; and eyes are not eyes but the “moons of the forehead.” Similarly, the earth is “the floor of the hall of the winds” or “the sea trodden on by animals,” while fire is “destroyer of timber” or “the sun of houses.”

14. “A kenning is a metaphorical circumlocution consisting of paired nouns or a noun phrase. For example, in ancient Icelandic verse, a sword is not a sword but an “icicle of blood”; a ship is not a ship but the “horse of the sea”; and eyes are not eyes but the “moons of the forehead.” Similarly, the earth is “the floor of the hall of the winds” or “the sea trodden on by animals,” while fire is “destroyer of timber” or “the sun of houses.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “Metaphor impinges on everything, allowing us – poets and non-poets alike – to experience and think about the world in fluid, unusual ways.”

15. “Metaphor impinges on everything, allowing us – poets and non-poets alike – to experience and think about the world in fluid, unusual ways.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “I believe aphorisms are best when first read in the wild, free from the confines of any categories.”

16. “I believe aphorisms are best when first read in the wild, free from the confines of any categories.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “Few people may be consciously aware of the etymological origins of common words and phrases, but the essential metaphor-making process of comparing the unknown with the known is still vital and ongoing. This process is the way meaning was, is, and ever shall be made.”

17. “Few people may be consciously aware of the etymological origins of common words and phrases, but the essential metaphor-making process of comparing the unknown with the known is still vital and ongoing. This process is the way meaning was, is, and ever shall be made.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “For life is short and the art of writing books is very, very long.”

18. “For life is short and the art of writing books is very, very long.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “The theoretical physicist Richard Feynman was such a lauded lecturer in large part because, like Hui Tzu, he was skilled in finding the right analogies to illustrate his explanations of extremely abstract-and extremely difficult-concepts. He once compared a drop of water magnified 2,000 times to “a kind of teeming... like a crowd at a football game as seen from a very great distance.” That description has all the precision of good physics and good poetry.”

19. “The theoretical physicist Richard Feynman was such a lauded lecturer in large part because, like Hui Tzu, he was skilled in finding the right analogies to illustrate his explanations of extremely abstract-and extremely difficult-concepts. He once compared a drop of water magnified 2,000 times to “a kind of teeming... like a crowd at a football game as seen from a very great distance.” That description has all the precision of good physics and good poetry.”

— James Geary

James Geary Quote: “Comparing your beloved to a red, red rose might be fine if you’re writing a poem, but these thinkers believed more exact language was needed to express the “truth”-a term, by the way, distilled from Icelandic, Swedish, Anglo-Saxon, and other non-English words meaning “believed” rather than certain.”

20. “Comparing your beloved to a red, red rose might be fine if you’re writing a poem, but these thinkers believed more exact language was needed to express the “truth”-a term, by the way, distilled from Icelandic, Swedish, Anglo-Saxon, and other non-English words meaning “believed” rather than certain.”

— James Geary

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Steve Jobs Quotes

Steve Jobs Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS APPLE

Inspirational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

COURAGE MOTIVATIONAL STRENGTH

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

LIFE SPIRITUALITY

Save image...
Permalink
Open in new tab
Copy quote text

Beautiful Wallpapers and Images

We hope you enjoyed our collection of 20 James Geary Quotes.

All the images on this page were created with QuoteFancy Studio.

Use QuoteFancy Studio to create high-quality images for your desktop backgrounds, blog posts, presentations, social media, videos, posters, and more.

Thank you!

Please check your email.