Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to popular belief, is more powerful in the mature than the young.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Imagination, where it is truly creative, is a faculty, not a quality; its seat is in the higher reason, and it is efficient only as the servant of the will.—Imagination, as too often understood, is mere fantasy—the image-making power, common to all who have the gift of dreams.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
Our imagination flies; we are its shadow on the earth.
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-born American Novelist
My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b.1929) American Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer
Your time may be limited, but your imagination is not.
—Anonymous
I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
—Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) French General, Statesman
If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.
—Rachel Carson (1907–64) American Naturalist, Science Writer
Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.
—Jessamyn West
Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything Godlike about God it is that. He dared to imagine everything.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind’s eye and you will be drawn toward it. Picture yourself vividly as winning and that alone will contribute immeasurably to success. Great living starts with a picture, held in your imagination, of what you would like to do or be.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American Baptist Minister
Begin to imagine what the desirable outcome would be like. Go over these mental pictures and delineate details and refinements. Play them over and over to yourself.
—Maxwell Maltz (1899–1975) American Surgeon, Motivational Writer
I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now? Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
Don’t expect anything original from an echo.
—Unknown
Imagination
Imagination—sparks dreams and laughter,
Dissolves barriers, expands knowledge and lights the mind.
Imagination also holds captive in dark places
Both the weak and strong, liquefies courage,
Builds enormous insurmountable fear.
—Unknown
When you are describing,
A shape, or sound, or tint;
Don’t state the matter plainly,
But put it in a hint;
And learn to look at all things,
With a sort of mental squint.
—Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (1832–98) British Anglican Author, Mathematician, Clergyman, Photographer, Logician
If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.
—Shunryu Suzuki (1904–71) Zen Buddhist Monk, Author
The “Spirit of Evil “entices a man in this world, and testifies against him in the next.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The human race is governed by its imagination.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
By visualizing your goals, you can get your subconscious to work toward making these mental pictures come true.
—Unknown
It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.
—Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (1832–98) British Anglican Author, Mathematician, Clergyman, Photographer, Logician
Imagination decides everything.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
I think the world really boils down to two types of people – those who see shapes in cloud formations, and those who just see clouds.
—Danzae Pace
Imagination is the eye of the soul.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
Images also help me find and realise ideas. I look at hundreds of very different, contrasting images and I pinch details from them, rather like people who eat from other people
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
The imaginations which people have of one another are the solid facts of society.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
Know you what it is to be a child? It is to be something very different from the man of to-day. It is to have a spirit yet streaming from the waters of baptism; it is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief; it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear; it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its own soul; it is to live in a nutshell and to count yourself the king of infinite space; it is To see a world in a grain of sand, And a Heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour; it is to know not as yet that you are under sentence of life, nor petition that it be commuted into death.
—Francis Thompson (1859–1907) English Poet, Ascetic
Men of great parts are often unfortunate in the management of public business because they are apt to go out of the common road by the quickness of their imagination.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
Leave a Reply