“Because most children are highly imaginative, it is supposed by some that to reach maturity we ought to leave imagination behind, like the habit of smearing our faces with jam or chocolate. But an adult in whom imagination has withered is mentally lame and lopsided, in danger of turning into a zombie or a murderer. It is the creative imagination that has given our ruthless bloodthirsty species its occasional gleams of nobility, its hope of rising above the muck it spreads.”

Source: Man and Time (1964), Ch. 12, p. 305

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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J.B. Priestley35

English writer 1894–1984

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