When we can’t dream any longer, we die.
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940) Lithuanian-American Anarchist, Feminist
For all their bitching about what’s holding them back, most people have a lot of trouble coming up with the defined dreams they’re being held from.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that’s how I operate my life.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. A goal is what specifically you intend to make happen. Dreams and goals should be just out of your present reach but not out of sight. Dreams and goals are coming attractions in your life.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about to expound this dream.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams.
—Les Brown
Dreams are only thoughts you didn’t have time to think about during the day.
—Unknown
Our dreams are a second life. I have never been able to penetrate without a shudder those ivory or horned gates which separate us from the invisible world.
—Gerard de Nerval (1808–55) French Poet, Essayist, Critic
The moment of enlightenment is when a person’s dreams of possibilities become images of probabilities.
—Vic Braden (b.1929) American Sportsperson, Author
Help others achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours.
—Les Brown
It is never too late to be what you might have been.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
The most important job you have is growing your people, giving them a chance to reach their dreams.
—Jack Welch (1935–2020) American Businessperson
No dreamer is ever too small; no dream is ever too big.
—Unknown
The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
Because thou must not dream, thou need not despair.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
The republic is a dream.
Nothing happens unless first a dream.
—Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American Biographer, Novelist, Socialist
I do not understand the capricious lewdness of the sleeping mind.
—John Cheever (1912–82) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
—Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) American Astronaut
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
I always have to dream up there against the stars. If I don’t dream I will make it, I won’t even get close.
—Henry J. Kaiser (1882–1967) American Industrialist
You’re in the midst of a war: a battle between the limits of a crowd seeking the surrender of your dreams, and the power of your true vision to create and contribute. It is a fight between those who will tell you what you cannot do, and that part of you that knows—and has always known—that we are more than our environment; and that a dream, backed by an unrelenting will to attain it, is truly a reality with an imminent arrival.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
Before you agree to do anything that might add even the smallest amount of stress to your life, ask yourself: “What is my truest intention?” Give yourself time to let a yes resound within you. When it’s right, I guarantee that your entire body will feel it.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
I don’t use drugs; my dreams are frightening enough.
—M. C. Escher (1898–1972) Dutch Graphic Artist
Dreams are great. When they disappear you may still be there, but you will have ceased to live.
—Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor (1879–1964) American-born British Politician
In our dreams we are always young.
—Sarah Louise Delany (1889–1999) American Educator , Author
In the end, the overriding factor in whether or not you realize your dreams is going to be you. Not the world. YOU.
—Russell Simmons (b.1957) American Music Promoter
I don’t want an epitaph on my gravestone that says, ‘He would have pursued some big dreams in his life, but other people wouldn’t let him.
—Tom Peters (b.1942) American Management Consultant, Author
Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.
—Anais Nin (1903–77) French-American Essayist
In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fall immediately, they had better aim at something high.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
No one has ever achieved anything from the smallest to the greatest unless the dream was dreamed first.
—Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American Children’s Novelist
Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
—Langston Hughes (1902–67) American Poet, Fiction Writer, Dramatist
I dream, therefore I exist.
—August Strindberg (1849–1912) Swedish Playwright, Novelist, Essayist
Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.
—A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1931–2015) Indian Head of State, Scientist
Before your dreams can come true, you have to have those dreams.
—Joyce Brothers (1927–2013) American Psychologist, Advice Columnist
The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.
—Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) American Christian Televangelist, Author
Ask yourself, “How long am I going to work to make my dreams come true?” I suggest you answer, “As long as it takes.”
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
One of the characteristics of the dream is that nothing surprises us in it. With no regret, we agree to live in it with strangers, completely cut off from our habits and friends.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
Maybe we are less than our dreams, but that less would make us more than some Gods would dream of.
—Corita Kent (1918–86) American Artist, Graphic Artist, Educator
There is no straight line to a dream.
—Jack Welch (1935–2020) American Businessperson
What if nothing exists and we’re all in somebody’s dream? Or what’s worse, what if only that fat guy in the third row exists?
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
In bed my real love has always been the sleep that rescued me by allowing me to dream.
—Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) Italian Dramatist, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Author
Hope is a waking dream.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Learn from your dreams what you lack.
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
Dreadful will be the day when the world becomes contented, when one great universal satisfaction spreads itself over the world. Sad will be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely contented with the life that he is living, with the thoughts that he is thinking, with the deeds that he is doing, when there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger which he knows that he was meant and made to do because he is a child of God.
—Phillips Brooks (1835–93) American Episcopal Clergyman, Author
Dreams don’t have to come true at age 20, 30, or 40; they often occur long past when you thought possible.
—Anonymous
Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.
—Baltasar Gracian (1601–58) Spanish Scholar, Prose Writer
Dream the impossible dream, Fight the unbeatable foe, Strive with your last once of courage To reach the unreachable star.
—Unknown
I was not looking for my dreams to interpret my life, but rather for my life to interpret my dreams
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher