“All of the buildings, all of those cars
Were once just a dream
In somebody's head.”
Peter Gabriel (1950) English singer-songwriter, record producer and humanitarian
Mercy Street
Song lyrics, So (1986)
Postfix to Altneuland (1902)
Context: ... but if you will, it may very well be only a legend dreamed up by myself, and will always be so. I had in mind to write a story with a point. There will be those who say, more story than point. After three years we must part, my beloved book. Now you go on your trail of tears. You will have to go through a maze of antagonism and misunderstanding, like through a dark forest. But if you are lucky and meet good people, please send them your father's blessings. He believes that dreams too can be a way to fill the days that man must spend on the face of the earth. The dream is not that far from action as most tend to think. All people's actions were once a dream and all peoples actions will someday be a dream.
“All of the buildings, all of those cars
Were once just a dream
In somebody's head.”
Peter Gabriel (1950) English singer-songwriter, record producer and humanitarian
Mercy Street
Song lyrics, So (1986)
Glen Cook book The White Rose
Source: The White Rose (1985), Chapter 2, “The Plain of Fear” (p. 456)
Context: An old, tired man. That is what I am. What became of the old fire, drive, ambition? There were dreams once upon a time, dreams now all but forgotten. On sad days I dust them off and fondle them nostalgically, with a patronizing wonder at the naivete of the youth who dreamed them.
Michael Kurland book The Unicorn Girl
Source: The Unicorn Girl (1969), Chapter 2 (p. 22)
Kurland is actually quoting here from Ian Fleming’s novel Goldfinger
Ayumi Hamasaki (1978) Japanese recording artist, lyricist, model, and actress
A Song Is Born
Lyrics, I am...
George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian
Cf. Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah (1921), Pt. I : In the Beginning: I hear you say "Why?" Always "Why?" You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?"
Books, Brain Droppings (1997)
Variant: Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that shit.
Jane Roberts (1929–1984) American Writer
Session 28
The Early Sessions: Sessions 1-42, 1997, The Early Sessions: Book 1
“Dreams and reality are opposites. Action synthesizes them.”
Assata Shakur (1947) American activist who was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army
Source: Assata: An Autobiography