He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.
—Franz Kafka (1883–1924) Austrian Novelist, Short Story Writer
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
Perhaps in a book review it is not out of place to note that the safety of the state depends on cultivating the imagination.
—Stephen Vizinczey (1933–2021) Hungarian-Canadian Writer
One of the virtues of being very young is that you don’t let the facts get in the way of your imagination.
—Sam Levenson (1911–80) American Humorist, Writer, TV Personality, Journalist
The most dire disaster in love is the death of imagination.
—George Meredith (1828–1909) British Novelist, Poet, Critic
Things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Imagination is the air of mind.
—Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) English Poet
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-born Physicist
Imagination gallops; judgment merely walks.
—Common Proverb
When you stop having dreams and ideals—well, you might as well stop altogether.
—Marian Anderson (1897–1993) American Singer
Anyone who thinks the sky is the limit, has limited imagination.
—Unknown
The “evil imagination “takes advantage only of visible objects.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The imagination is man’s power over nature.
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American Poet
You gave me the key of your heart, my love; then why did you make me knock? Oh that was yesterday, saints above! And last night—I changed the lock!
—John Boyle O’Reilly (1844–90) Irish-American Journalist, Political Agitator
In that way imagination and intelligence enter into our existence in the part of servants of the primary instincts.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
The opportunities of man are limited only by his imagination. But so few have imagination that there are ten thousand fiddlers to one composer.
—Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American Inventor, Entrepreneur, Businessperson
Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.
—Unknown
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
Make every thought, every fact, that comes into your mind pay you a profit. Make it work and produce for you. Think of things not as they are but as they might be. Don’t merely dream—but create!
—Robert Collier (1885–1950) American Self-Help Author
The “Spirit of Evil “entices a man in this world, and testifies against him in the next.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The great successful men of the world have used their imagination…they think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building – steadily building.
—Robert Collier (1885–1950) American Self-Help Author
The imagination is the spur of delights… all depends upon it, it is the mainspring of everything; now, is it not by means of the imagination one knows joy? Is it not of the imagination that the sharpest pleasures arise?
—Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) French Political leader, Revolutionary, Novelist, Poet, Critic
It is important to rely on your imagination for your sense of humor and your memory for your truths. Not the other way around.
—Unknown
A vile imagination, once indulged, gets the key of our minds, and can get in again very easily, whether we will or no, and can so return as to bring seven other spirits with it more wicked than itself; and what may follow no one knows.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. … To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong in the ranks of devoutly religious men.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Imagination arises in between our eyebrows, not from the intellect.
—Hans Taeger
Imagination
Imagination—sparks dreams and laughter,
Dissolves barriers, expands knowledge and lights the mind.
Imagination also holds captive in dark places
Both the weak and strong, liquefies courage,
Builds enormous insurmountable fear.
—Unknown
An unimaginative person can neither be reverent or kind.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
It is more than likely that the brain itself is, in origin and development, only a sort of great clot of genital fluid held in suspense or reserved. This hypothesis would explain the enormous content of the brain as a maker or presenter of images.
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic