The human race is governed by its imagination.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding.
—Isaac Newton (1643–1727) English Physicist, Mathematician, Astronomer
When you stop having dreams and ideals—well, you might as well stop altogether.
—Marian Anderson (1897–1993) American Singer, Activist
Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.
—Mae Jemison (b.1956) American Physician, Astronaut
For imagination sets the goal “picture” which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of “will,” as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination.
—Maxwell Maltz (1899–1975) American Surgeon, Motivational Writer
So you see, imagination needs coddling—long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering.
—Brenda Ueland (1891–1985) American Journalist Memoirist
Often it is just lack of imagination that keeps a man from suffering very much.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Imagination is always the fabric of social life and the dynamic of history. The influence of real needs and compulsions, of real interests and materials, is indirect because the crowd is never conscious of it.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
Build castles in the air.
—Robert Burton (1577–1640) English Scholar, Clergyman
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 Author, Mathematician, Clergyman, Logician
Imaginary evils soon become real one by indulging our reflections on them.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
Thus man of all creatures is more than a creature, he is also a creator. Man alone can direct his success mechanism by the use of imagination, or imaging ability.
—Maxwell Maltz (1899–1975) American Surgeon, Motivational Writer
We have been endowed with the capacity and the power to create desirable pictures within and to find them automatically in the outer world of our environment.
—John D. MacDonald (1916–86) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
To regard the imagination as metaphysics is to think of it as part of life, and to think of it as part of life is to realize the extent of artifice. We live in the mind.
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American Poet
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Only in men’s imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
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, Architect
I get the facts, I study them patiently, I apply imagination.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
Science does not know its debt to imagination.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he isn’t. A sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.
—Unknown
Imagination is our ability to see inwardly and picture there that which has not yet appeared outwardly. Imagination is God’s gift to us.
—Donald Curtis (1915–97) American Actor, Religious Minister
By going over your day in imagination before you begin it, you can begin acting successfully at any moment.
—Dorothea Brande (1893–1948) American Writer, Editor
The wonderful thing about books is that they allow us to enter imaginatively into someone else’s life. And when we do that, we learn to sympathize with other people. But the real surprise is that we also learn truths about ourselves, about our own lives that somehow we hadn’t been able to see before.
—Katherine Paterson (b.1932) American Children’s Author
Understand that you, yourself, are no more than the composite picture of all your thoughts and actions. In your relationships with others, remember the basic and critically important rule: If you want to be loved, be lovable. If you want respect, set a respectable example!
—Denis Waitley (b.1933) American Motivational Speaker, Author
The most evident difference springs from the important part which is played in man by a relatively strong power of imagination and by the capacity to think, aided as it is by language and other symbolically devices.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
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