I just found an excellent quote that supports a lot of what I’ve been trying to get across about “the power of stories.” It’s by Hannah Arendt, a German politicial theorist and philosopher:

Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.

I found this in an articles called “Origins of Storytelling.” Found a some other quotes by her also:

Equality…is the result of human organization. We are not born equal.

The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.

Under conditions of tyranny it is far easer to act than to think.

This quote from TS Eliot is also not too shabby.

I incline to come to the alarming conclusion that it is just the literature we read for ‘amusement’ or ‘purely for pleasure’ that may have the greatest and least suspected influence upon us. . .