Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
Among My Books, “Dryden” (1870)
Quotations about:
imagination
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
There is nothing more fearful than imagination without taste.
[Es ist nichts furchterlicher als Einbildungskraft ohne Geschmack.]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Spruche in Prosa [Proverbs in Prose], 3 (1819)
Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
(Attributed)
THESEUS: Lovers and madmen have seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 4 (5.1.4-6) (1605)
(Source)
No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.
Christian Nestell Bovee (1820-1904) American epigrammatist, writer, publisher
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, Vol. 1 (1862)
We are never quite as happy, or as unhappy, as we think.
[On n’est jamais si heureux ni si malheureux qu’on s’imagine.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶49 (1665-1678) [tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]
(Source)
Present in the first edition. In the first four editions, the concluding words were "... que l’on pense [whatever one thinks]." In the manuscript, this maxim read:
One is never so unhappy as one fears, nor so happy as one hopes.
[On n’est jamais si malheureux qu’on craint, ni si heureux qu’on espère.]
Another manuscript version is what the Davies translation below derives from:
Les biens et les maux sont plus grands dans notre imagination qu’ils ne le sont en effet, et on n’est jamais si heureux ni si malheureux que l’on pense.
Above notes. (Source (French)). Alternate translations:
Goods and Evils are much greater in our imaginations of them, than they are in effect; and men are never so happy or unhappy, as they think themselves.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶128; see above.]
None are either so happy or so unhappy, as they imagine.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶211; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶49]
No person is either so happy;, or so unhappy, as he imagines.
[ed. Carville (1835), ¶184]
We are never so happy, or so unhappy, as we imagine.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶50]
We are never so happy or so unhappy as we suppose.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871); tr. Stevens (1939)]
We are never as happy or unhappy as we think.
[tr. Heard (1917)]
We are never so happy or so unhappy as we think.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959)]
We are never as fortunate or as unfortunate as we suppose.
[tr. Tancock (1959)]
We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine.
[tr. Whichello (2016)]
Discretion is the salt, and fancy the sugar of life; the one preserves, the other sweetens it.
Christian Nestell Bovee (1820-1904) American epigrammatist, writer, publisher
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, Vol. 1, “Discretion” (1862)
(Source)
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
“What Life Means to Einstein,” Interview with G. Viereck, Saturday Evening Post (26 Oct 1929)
(Source)
Quoted as "I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world," in Viereck, Glimpses of the Great (1930).
