quotations about dreams & dreaming
It may be those who do most, dream most.
STEPHEN LEACOCK
How to Write
Dreams are the seedlings of reality.
NAPOLEON HILL
Think and Grow Rich
I know this dream, it might be crazy
But it’s the only one I’ve got
BOB DYLAN
"Emotionally Yours"
We say that we often see animals in our dreams, but we forget that almost always we are ourselves animals therein, deprived of that reasoning power which projects upon things the light of certainty; on the contrary we bring to bear on the spectacle of life only a dubious vision, extinguished anew every moment by oblivion, the former reality fading before that which follows it as one projection of a magic lantern fades before the next as we change the slide.
MARCEL PROUST
Within a Budding Grove
Men have in their minds a picture of how the world will be. How they will be in that world. The world may be many different ways for them but there is one world that will never be and that is the world they dream of.
CORMAC MCCARTHY
Cities of the Plain
The dream arises from a part of the mind unknown to us, but none the less important, and is concerned with the desires for the approaching day.
CARL JUNG
Psychology of the Unconscious
Dreams last as long as you let them ... both good and bad.
MICHAEL MARSHALL
The Upright Man
God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
Sonnets from the Portuguese
Even the loveliest dream bears like a blemish its difference from reality, the awareness that what it grants is mere illusion.
THEODOR WIESENGRUND ADORNO
Minima Moralia
Follow your own particular dreams. We are handed a life by peers, parents and society, you can do that or follow your own dreams. Life is short, be a dreamer but be a practical person.
HUGH HEFNER
interview, AskMen
The dream undreamed is fairer yet
Than these, that turn to dust.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FIELD
"The Rhythm of Life"
Dreams take short cuts.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
The Lathe of Heaven
Canst thou comprehend, my poor beloved Tried-one, that unless the torpor and the veils of sleep had wrapped thee, such sights would rend and bear away thy mind as the whirlwinds rend and carry into space the feeble sails, depriving thee forever of thy reason? Dost thou understand that the Soul itself, raised to its utmost power can scarcely endure in dreams the burning communications of the Spirit?
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Seraphita
When we're able to resign ourselves to the wishes that will never come true, there can be enormous energies available within us for whatever we CAN do.
FRED ROGERS
You Are Special: Neighborly Wit and Wisdom from Mister Rogers
Dreams are free.
AESCHYLUS
The Libation Bearers
In dreams the mind is constantly giving you substitutes just to protect sleep. And the same is happening while you are awake. The mind is giving you substitutes just to protect your sanity; otherwise you will be scattered in fragments.
OSHO
The Book of Secrets
A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
OSCAR WILDE
The Critic as Artist
My God! I thank Thee for the bath of sleep,
That wraps in balm my weary heart and brain,
And drowns within its waters still and deep
My sorrow and my pain.
I thank Thee for my dreams, which loose the bond
That binds my spirit to its daily load,
And give it angel wings, to fly beyond
Its slumber-bound abode.
JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND
"Sleeping and Dreaming"
My dreams are the problems of the day stepped up to absurdity, a little like men dancing, wearing the horns and masks of animals.
JOHN STEINBECK
The Winter of Our Discontent
Dreams: the place most of us get what we need.
AMY HEMPEL
"The Dog of the Marriage"