The power of metaphor: Fueling breakthroughs and transforming thought

Metaphor lies at the heart of nearly every significant scientific breakthrough in history. Celebrated scientists like Niels Bohr, Richard Feynman, and Albert Einstein relied on metaphor to unlock new discoveries and reshape our understanding of the world. Across all levels of society—personal, cultural, scientific, social, and political—true innovation and transformation depend on our ability to engage with metaphor.

Aristotle once claimed that his soul never thought without an image. Similarly, Einstein described his thought process as driven not by words, but by visual and kinesthetic images. Words, he said, had to be laboriously found in a “secondary state.” August Kekulé discovered the benzene ring after a vivid vision of a snake seizing its own tail. Even the invention of Velcro came from George de Mestral’s metaphorical leap—he noticed the tiny hooks on cockleburs that clung to his pants after a walk in the woods.

Metaphor connects what we already know to what we don’t yet understand, bridging the gap between the familiar and the unknown. It allows us to leap beyond conventional thinking, offering the creative insight necessary for progress and discovery.