wisdom at work: quotes about the power of story

WISDOM AT WORK How Personal Storytelling

Sparks Insight, Breakthrough,

and Lifelong Innovation

A New Book by Mitch DitkoffPublication Date: December 10, 2014

“The world is not made of atoms.

The world is made of stories.”

– Muriel Ruykeser

“A story is a way to say something that can be

said no other way.”– Flannery O’Connor

“A lost coin is found by means

of a candle; the deepest truth

is found by the means of a

simple story.”- Anthony De Mello

“Become aware of what is in you. Announce it, pronounce it,

produce it and give birth to it.”

- Meister Eckhart

“We need to look hard at the stories we create and wrestle with them.

Retell and retell them, and work with them like clay.

It is in the retelling and returning that they give us their wisdom.”

– Marni Gillard

“Telling someone about your experience

breathes new life into it, moving it out of the

inchoate swirl of unconsciousness into

reality. It takes on form and allows us to examine it

from all angles.” - Mandy Aftel

“A coherent life experience is not simply given. The thing must be made into a story-like production.” – Steven Krites

“Inside of each of us is a natural born storyteller just

waiting to be born.”- Robin Moore

“From my perspective as a depth psychologist, I see that those who have a connection to story are in better shape and have a better prognosis than those to whom story must be introduced.”

– Joseph Hillman

“Although setbacks of all kinds may discourage us, the grand old process

of storytelling puts us in touch with strengths we may have forgotten,

with wisdom that has faded or disappeared, and with hopes that have fallen into darkness.”

– Nancy Mellon

“When one is a stranger to

oneself, then one is estranged from

others, too. If one is out of

TOUCH with oneself,

then one cannot touch others.”– Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“The role of the storyteller is to

awaken the storyteller in others.”– Jack Zipes

“In my life, the stories I have heard from my family, my friends, my community, and from willing strangers all over the world have been the true source of my education.” – Holly Near

“Those who do not have the power over the story

that dominates their lives, the power to retell it,

rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless because they

cannot think new thoughts.”- Salman Rushdie

“Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who

listen to us are the ones we move toward, and we want to sit in their radius.

When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.”

– Karl Menninger

“The most important question to ask is: What myth am I living?” – Carl Jung

“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass,

it becomes a mysteriously awesome, indescribably magnificent

world in itself.”– Henry Miller

“Every story you tell is your own

story.” - Joseph Campbell

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WISDOM AT WORK and/or

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