What happens to the wide-eyed observer when the window between reality and unreality breaks and the glass begins to fly?
—Unknown
I have a very firm grasp on reality! I can reach out and strangle it any time!
—Unknown
I accept reality and dare not question it.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist
But if men would give heed to the nature of substance they would doubt less concerning the Proposition that Existence appertains to the nature of substance: rather they would reckon it an axiom above all others, and hold it among common opinions. For then by substance they would understand that which is in itself, and through itself is conceived, or rather that whose knowledge does not depend on the knowledge of any other thing.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
Across the gulfs and barriers that now divide us, we must remember that there are no permanent enemies. Hostility today is a fact, but it is not a ruling law. The supreme reality of our time is our indivisibility as children of God and our common vulnerability on this planet.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, but to imagine your facts is another.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
If I had my life to live over, I wish I could be a great pianist or something.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
It has sometimes been said that we find nowhere in nature an analogue of the difference between “happens” and “is,” on the one hand, and “ought,” on the other hand.
—Wolfgang Kohler (1887–1967) German Psychologist, Gestalt Theorist
To be realistic today is to be visionary. To be realistic is to be starry-eyed.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.
—Philip K. Dick (1928–82) American Writer, Science Fiction Author
The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.
—Alfred Adler (1870–1937) Austrian Psychiatrist
A test of what is real is that it is hard and rough. Joys are found in it, not pleasure. What is pleasant belongs to dreams.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
I look forward to being older, when what you look like becomes less and less an issue and what you are is the point.
—Susan Sarandon (b.1946) American Actress, Activist
Literary works cannot be taken over like factories, or literary forms of expression like industrial methods. Realist writing, of which history offers many widely varying examples, is likewise conditioned by the question of how, when and for what class it is made use of.
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) German Poet, Playwright, Theater Personality
Reality is not protected or defended by laws, proclamations, ukases, cannons and armadas. Reality is that which is sprouting all the time out of death and disintegration.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
Money is another pressure. I’m not complaining, I’m just Saying that there’s a certain luxury in having no money. I spent 10 years in New York not having it, not worrying about it. Suddenly you have it, then you worry, where is it going? Am I doing the right thing with it?
—Dustin Hoffman (b.1937) American Actor, Filmmaker
One of the most important-and most neglected-elements in the beginning of the interior life is the ability to respond to reality, to see the value and the beauty in ordinary things, to come alive to the splendour that is all around us.
—Thomas Merton (1915–68) American Trappist Monk
What makes us discontented with our condition is the absurdly exaggerated idea we have of the happiness of others.
—French Proverb
Ambition, having reached the summit, longs to descend.
—Pierre Corneille (1606–84) French Poet, Dramatist
I’m not crazy about reality, but it’s still the only place to get a decent meal.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
We must find our duties in what comes to us, not in what we imagine might have been.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Fear not what is not real, never was and never will be. What is real, always was and cannot be destroyed.
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
Reality is a sliding door.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Pale death with impartial tread beats at the poor man’s cottage door and at the palaces of kings.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
The man with toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. The poverty stricken man makes the same mistake about the rich man.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
I look at what I have not and think myself unhappy; others look at what I have and think me happy.
—Philibert Joseph Roux (1780–1854) French Surgeon
I never admired another’s fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
The reality is more excellent than the report.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.
—Bruce Lee (1940–73) American Martial Artist, Actor, Philosopher
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