Metaphor (n.) is an imperialistic principle. Like Rome, every word strives to give its name to the whole world.
Metaphor (n.) is not a rhetorical trope for the true poet, but an image which really hovers in front of him in the place of an idea.
Metaphor (n.) is necessary to human thought. The drive towards its formation is the fundamental human drive, which one cannot for a single instance dispense with in thought, for one would thereby dispense with man himself.
Metaphor (n.) is the true vehicle of language, enabling man to comprehend his condition in a meaningful way.
Metaphor (n.) begins in the body: a nerve-stimulus transformed into a percept is the first metaphor; the percept copied into a sound is the second.
Metaphor (n.) is all we possess of things: we believe we know the things themselves, yet hold only metaphors that do not in the least correspond to the original essentials.
A Metaphor (n.) is, for the true poet, not a rhetorical trope but an image that really hovers before him in place of an idea.
A Metaphor (n.) is the work of the fundamental human drive — to dispense with that drive for an instant would be to dispense with man himself.