20 Quotes by Leah Hager Cohen

Our civic life is heavily marked—indeed, pocked—by debates in which each side is so certain of its position that any movement is effectively impossible. For that matter, debate—in its original sense of “to consider something, to deliberate”—is impossible. We wind up with so much sound and fury and nothing gained.

People cheat when they are afraid. When there is no cost to being wrong or confessing ignorance, there is no reason to cheat or fake comprehension.

The ability to know one’s limitations, to recognize the bounds of one’s own comprehension—this is a kind of knowing that approaches wisdom.

The ability to know one’s limitations, to recognize the bounds of one’s own comprehension – this is a kind of knowing that approaches wisdom.

The humor is the sort born of ironic necessity; they use it to salve the wounds in insensitity.

Every sad thing, every loss or hurt really a challenge to love that much more, really just another of beauty’s many strongholds.

For why are we here if not to try to fathom one another? Not through facts alone, but with the full extent of our imaginations. And what are stories if not tools for imagining?

Who could ever tell a story complete?

Food and shelter are very nice, but without stories to hear and tell, we might as well be the walking dead.