The Language Perfectionist: Quotable Metaphors
An incisive quotation can often make your writing or speaking more effective.
But be sure that the one you choose is appropriate to your context and that your audience isn’t likely to have read or heard it before. In addition, a quotation should never just be dropped into your text. Explain its relevance to your theme. Or cite a real-life example or story that illustrates its point.
Many fine quotation resources exist. One that I recommend was just published. Mardy Grothe’s cleverly titled I Never Metaphor I Didn’t Like is a collection of quotations, many unfamiliar, on numerous topics ranging from politics to sports to relationships and beyond. All employ metaphors, similes, and analogies. That makes the book a pleasure for lovers of language, too.
Here are a few quotable samples from the book:
- “Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.”
- Ray Bradbury
- “Absence lessens the minor passions and increases the great ones, as the wind douses a candle and kindles a fire.” - Francois de La Rochefoucauld
- “The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn.” - Thomas Babington Macaulay
- “Reading is a means of thinking with another person’s mind; it forces you to stretch your own.” - Charles Scribner Jr.
Equally valuable are the author’s comments, pointing out the significance of key quotations and linking them with others that share their themes.
With almost 2,000 entries at your fingertips, you’re bound to find dozens of provocative and inspiring thoughts you’ll want to cite – or post on your refrigerator, mirror, or office wall. This remarkable anthology contains so many gems that you may find yourself exclaiming, as I often did, “How did he find that one?”
Here’s an appropriate metaphorical quotation with which to conclude, lest this review become too long:
“A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.” - Samuel Johnson
[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book forthcoming from AWAI, that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]
This small review makes me wish I had the entire collection with me at the moment.
Thanks.