Word Are Deeds: Rebecca Solnit the Power of Speech to Shape the Future ‹ Literary Hub

When the soul wants to experience something she throws out an image in front of her and steps into it. –Meister Eckhart

We make something more likely, more widely believed, by saying and repeating it. Our rhetoric encourages or discourages. Which is why sports teams chant a version of “I believe we will win.” A whole sector of the progressive/left/whatever, however, seems to be eternally chanting “I believe we will lose.” This is not something sports teams do, incidentally. —Rebecca Solnit