Quotes about dreams
page 35

Henry David Thoreau photo

“It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

August 30, 1856
Journals (1838-1859)

“In a herber green, asleep where I lay,
The birds sang sweet in the mids of the day;
I dreamed fast of mirth and play.
In youth is pleasure, in youth is pleasure.”

Robert Wever (1500) English poet

Lusty Juventus http://www.umm.maine.edu/faculty/necastro/drama/juventus.txt (1557)

Bill Bryson photo
Marianne von Werefkin photo
Amit Chaudhuri photo
Harry Chapin photo
Philip K. Dick photo
Robert E. Howard photo
Sam Rayburn photo
Narendra Modi photo

“I want to assure the people that Gujarat shall not tolerate any such accident. The culprits will get full punishment for their sins. Not only this, we will set an example, that nobody not even in his dream, thinks of committing a heinous crime like this.”

Narendra Modi (1950) Prime Minister of India

Cited in: Caroline Sweetman (2005) Gender, Peacebuilding, and Reconstruction. p. 94
2002, "When select phrases are lifted and distorted out of context", 2002

Lewis H. Lapham photo

“Seeking the invisible through the imagery of the visible, the Americans never can get quite all the way to the end of the American dream.”

Lewis H. Lapham (1935) American journalist

Source: Money And Class In America (1989), Chapter 1, The Gilded Cage, p. 28

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“My dear Brother, - I am working like one actually possessed, more than ever I am in a dumb fury of work… Perhaps something will happen to me like what Eug. Delacroix spoke of, "I discovered painting when I had no longer teeth or breath." What I dream of in my best moments is not so much of striking color effects as once more the half tones.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Quote in his letter to brother Theo, from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Sept. 1889; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935 https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1996_300061887.pdf, p. 33 (letter 604)
1880s, 1889

Wisława Szymborska photo

“My dreams — even they're not as populous as they should be.
They hold more solitude than noisy crowds.”

Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012) Polish writer

"A Large Number"
Poems New and Collected (1998), A Large Number (1976)

Sara Teasdale photo
Zygmunt Bauman photo
Hélène Binet photo
Anatoliy Tymoshchuk photo
George Bird Evans photo
Peter Gabriel photo

“From the pain come the dream.
From the dream come the vision.
From the vision come the people.
From the people come the power.
From this power come the change.”

Peter Gabriel (1950) English singer-songwriter, record producer and humanitarian

Fourteen Black Paintings
Song lyrics, Us (1992)

James Thomson (B.V.) photo

“For life is but a dream whose shapes return,
Some frequently, some seldom, some by night
And some by day.”

James Thomson (B.V.) (1834–1882) Scottish writer (1834-1882)

Part I
The City of Dreadful Night (1870–74)

“We all dream of being the darling of everybody's darling.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Ayumi Hamasaki photo
Gerry Rafferty photo
Wisława Szymborska photo
Jean Toomer photo
Arnold Schwarzenegger photo
Conrad Aiken photo
W. C. Handy photo

“If my serenade of song and story should serve as a pillow for some composer's head, as yet perhaps unborn, to dream and build on our fond melodies in his tomorrow, I have not labored in vain.”

W. C. Handy (1873–1958) American blues composer and musician

Profiles In Black http://www.theblackmarket.com/ProfilesInBlack/WCHandy.htm

Joanna Newsom photo
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam photo

“Passion isn't something that lives way up in the sky, in abstract dreams and hopes. It lives at ground level, in the specific details of what you're doing every day.”

Marcus Buckingham (1966) British writer

Author Marcus Buckingham, cited in: Michel Beaudry, " Sam Rees - making the Whistler leap http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/sam-rees-making-the-whistler-leap/Content?oid=2519430," at piquenewsmagazine.com, November 28, 2013.

“I trust that it was not a serious dream and then there is nothing now which can be broken.”

Róbert Puzsér (1974) hungarian publicist

Quotes from him, Csillag születik (talent show between 2011-2012)

Kim Wilde photo

“Where are you this moment?
only in my dreams.
You're missing, but you're always
a heartbeat from me.”

Enya (1961) Irish singer, songwriter, and musician

Song lyrics, Amarantine (2005)

Nigel Cumberland photo

“Stress ruthlessly puts out your dreams and robs you of your happiness. It can destroy your health, lead to tensions at home and ruin your career plans. It strikes when you are not at peace or uncomfortable with aspects of your life – and pretty much anything can bring it on.”

Nigel Cumberland (1967) British author and leadership coach

Your Job-Hunt Ltd – Advice from an Award-Winning Asian Headhunter (2003), Successful Recruitment in a Week (2012) https://books.google.ae/books?idp24GkAsgjGEC&printsecfrontcover&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIGjAA#vonepage&qnigel%20cumberland&ffalse, 100 Things Successful People Do: Little Exercises for Successful Living (2016) https://books.google.ae/books?idnu0lCwAAQBAJ&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIMjAE

Conrad Aiken photo

“And I been waitin' all my life
And I been havin' big dreams times twice”

Eamon (singer) (1984) American singer

"Real Pro"
Lyrics, Love & Pain (2006)

Betty Friedan photo
Conrad Aiken photo
Walt Disney photo

“I suppose my formula might be: dream, diversify and never miss an angle.”

Walt Disney (1901–1966) American film producer and businessman

"Walt's Profit Formula: Dream, Diversity, and Never Miss an Angle" in Wall Street Journal (4 February 1958)

Lewis Pugh photo
Daniel Dennett photo
Samuel Johnson photo

“The potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

1780?
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Life of Johnson (Boswell)

Earl Holliman photo
Philip K. Dick photo

“What about [my] books? How do I feel about them?
I enjoyed writing all of them. But I think that if I could only choose a few, which, for example, might escape World War Three, I would choose, first, Eye in the Sky. Then The Man in the High Castle. Martian Time-Slip (published by Ballantine). Dr. Bloodmoney (a recent Ace novel). Then The Zap Gun and The Penultimate Truth, both of which I wrote at the same time. And finally another Ace book, The Simulacra.
But this list leaves out the most vital of them all: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. I am afraid of that book; it deals with absolute evil, and I wrote it during a great crisis in my religious beliefs. I decided to write a novel dealing with absolute evil as personified in the form of a "human." When the galleys came from Doubleday I couldn't correct them because I could not bear to read the text, and this is still true.
Two other books should perhaps be on this list, both very new Doubleday novels: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and another as yet untitled Ubik]. Do Androids has sold very well and has been eyed intently by a film company who has in fact purchased an option on it. My wife thinks it's a good book. I like it for one thing: It deals with a society in which animals are adored and rare, and a man who owns a real sheep is Somebody… and feels for that sheep a vast bond of love and empathy. Willis, my tomcat, strides silently over the pages of that book, being important as he is, with his long golden twitching tail. Make them understand, he says to me, that animals are really that important right now. He says this, and then eats up all the food we had been warming for our baby. Some cats are far too pushy. The next thing he'll want to do is write SF novels. I hope he does. None of them will sell.”

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) American author

"Self Portrait" (1968), reprinted in The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (1995), ed. Lawrence Sutin

Jorge Luis Borges photo
Robert Jordan photo

“A man's dreams are a maze even he cannot know.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

Bair
(15 October 1994)

George Steiner photo
Van Morrison photo

“Enlightenment says the world is nothing
Nothing but a dream, everything's an illusion
And nothing is real.”

Van Morrison (1945) Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician

Enlightenment
Song lyrics, Enlightenment (1990)

Bob Dylan photo

“The ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Mr. Tambourine Man

Aung San Suu Kyi photo
Emmitt Smith photo

“My idea, my dream, my goal, is to go out and legitimize this sport and compete at the Olympic Games with my peers in the football arena.”

Emmitt Smith (1969) American football player and sports broadcaster

Doug Robinson (February 10, 1996) "Honest! Emmitt Is Going For Gold", The Deseret News, p. D1.

Pete Doherty photo
Hoyt Axton photo

“And I dream in the morning that she brings me water
And I dream in the evening that she brings me wine
Just a poor man's daughter from Puerta Piñasco
South of the border, in old Mexico.”

Hoyt Axton (1938–1999) American country singer

"Evangelina" on Fearless (1976) · Stage performance by Axton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O53wg24FAT0

Francis Thompson photo

“The hills look over on the South,
And Southward dreams the sea;
And with the sea-breeze hand in hand,
Came innocence and she.”

Francis Thompson (1859–1907) British poet

Daisy http://www.bartleby.com/103/26.html (1893), st. 2.

John Moffat photo
George W. Bush photo
Craig Ferguson photo

“[The Secretariat horse character reveals his true identity, and it happens to be Bob Newhart. ]
Craig: Bob Newhart! What are you doing here?
Bob Newhart: Hey, Craig; it's your dream!”

Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…

During the final episode, the ending of the classic sitcom Newhart was spoofed here; Craig, in his role as Nigel Wick from The Drew Carey Show, wakes up next to Drew and discovers his entire stint as host of the Late Late Show was all a bad dream.
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2005–2014)

Jenny Lewis photo
Isaac Asimov photo

“Were I to use the wits the good Spirits gave me,” he said, “then I would say this lady can not exist — for what sane man would hold a dream to be reality. Yet rather would I not be sane and lend belief to charmed, enchanted eyes.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation and Empire (1952), Chapter 13 “Lieutenant and Clown”

Patrick Modiano photo
Bruce Springsteen photo
Anu Partanen photo
Kazuo Ishiguro photo
Pierre Trudeau photo

“Our hopes are high. Our faith in the people is great. Our courage is strong. And our dreams for this beautiful country will never die.”

Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) 15th Prime Minister of Canada

Farewell speech to the Liberal Party http://www.primeministers.ca/trudeau/bio_9.php?context=b (14 June 1984)

Lydia Canaan photo

“My dream was to give people a dream.”

Lydia Canaan Lebanese singer-songwriter

As quoted in interview with Fumiya Akashika, RedDeer International, October 10, 2014 https://reddeervoice.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/lydia-canaan-passion-for-music-and-humanity/

Viswanathan Anand photo
Alex Salmond photo

“Our national story has its full share of grief and pain as well as triumph and expectation. But through it all, hope remains and dreams do not die.”

Alex Salmond (1954) Scottish National Party politician and former First Minister of Scotland

Third Session of Parliament (June 30, 2007)

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“O dream of fame, what hast thou been to me
But the destroyer of life's calm content!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

Erinna
The Golden Violet (1827)

Stephenie Meyer photo

“Do you want me to sing to you? I'll sing all night if it will keep the bad dreams away.”

Stephenie Meyer (1973) American author

Edward Cullen to Bella Cullen, p. 105
Twilight series, Breaking Dawn (2008)

William Ernest Henley photo
Naomi Klein photo

“So, if consumers are like roaches, then marketers must forever be dreaming up new concoctions for industrial-strength Raid.”

Naomi Klein (1970) Canadian author and activist

Source: No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies 1999, Chapter One, "No Space"

Slavoj Žižek photo
John Steinbeck photo
Allan Kardec photo
Hans Arp photo

“The man who speaks and writes about art should refrain from censuring or pontificating. He will thus avoid doing anything foolish, for in the presence of primordial depth all art is but dream and nature.”

Hans Arp (1886–1966) Alsatian, sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist

Arp on Arp: poems, essays, memories. p. 327 (1958)
1950s

Jean Paul Sartre photo

“The dreamer must contaminate the others by his dream, he must make them fall into it”

(399).
Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952)

Clive Staples Lewis photo

“This is where dreams—dreams, do you understand—come to life, come real. Not daydreams: dreams.”

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952), Ch. 12: The Dark Island
The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956)

Camille Paglia photo
Vyjayanthimala photo

“My first colour sequence was in what was then called ‘Geva Colour’ for the dream sequence in Nagin.”

Vyjayanthimala (1936) Indian actress, politician & dancer

Why Vyjayanthimala has 'nothing to say' about today's heroines

Lewis Pugh photo

“Don’t look for other people to validate your dreams. If it feels right, just go for it.”

Lewis Pugh (1969) Environmental campaigner, maritime lawyer and endurance swimmer

p 262
21 Yaks And A Speedo (2013)

Walter de la Mare photo
Willa Cather photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“Alas, the strange varieties or life!
We live 'mid perils and pleasures, like
Characters 'graven on the sand, or hues
Colouring the rainbow. Wild as a sick fancy
And changeful as a maiden, is this dream,
This brief dream on earth - - -”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

(7th September 1822) Poetical Sketches. Third series - Sketch the First. The Mine
14th September 1822) Poetical Sketches. Third series - Sketch the Second. Gladesmuir see The Improvisatrice (1824
21st September 1822) Poetical Sketches. Third series - Sketch the Third. The Minstrel of Portugal see The Improvisatrice (1824
28th September 1822) Poetical Sketches. Third series - Sketch the Fourth. The Castilian Nuptuals see The Vow of the Peacock (1835
5th October 1822) Poetical Sketches. Third series - Sketch the Fifth. The Lover's Rock see The Vow of the Peacock (1835
12th October 1822) Poetical Sketches. Third series - Sketch the Sixth. The Basque girl and Henri Quatre see The Improvisatrice (1824
The London Literary Gazette, 1821-1822

Sara Teasdale photo

“The greenish sky glows up in misty reds,
The purple shadows turn to brick and stone,
The dreams wear thin, men turn upon their beds,
And hear the milk-cart jangle by alone.”

Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) American writer and poet

"City Vignettes, I: Dawn"
Helen of Troy and Other Poems (1911)

Joaquin Miller photo
Hiroo Onoda photo

“Some dreams are best not to wake up from.”

Hiroo Onoda (1922–2014) Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer

Attributed by Judit Kawaguchi, "Words to Live By: Hiroo Onoda" https://archive.is/20120720155407/search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070116jk.html, The Japan Times, 16 January 2007

Emma Goldman photo
Aleister Crowley photo
Sri Aurobindo photo

“Hold on to your dreams, Kiall. They are more important than you realise.”

Source: Drenai series, Quest for Lost Heroes, Ch. 5

Dyanne Thorne photo

“Thank you for your loyalty, and many kindnesses through the years…You have one by one validated my modest life as an actress, far beyond my personal fulfillment. Dare to pursue your own positive dreams. I value each of you.”

Dyanne Thorne (1943–2020) American actress

Interview, Fabian Paffendorf, wicked-vision.com, November, 2003, 2007-09-30 http://www.wicked-vision.com/artikel/thorne/e_interview.php,
( also available in German http://www.wicked-vision.com/artikel/thorne/d_interview.php).

“But just like voices, thoughts are underpinned by physical stuff. We know this because alterations to the brain change the kinds of thoughts we can think. In a state of deep sleep, there are no thoughts. When the brain transitions into dream sleep, there are unbidden, bizarre thoughts. During the day we enjoy our normal, well-accepted thoughts, which people enthusiastically modulate by spiking the chemical cocktails of the brain with alcohol, narcotics, cigarettes, coffee, or physical exercise. The state of the physical material determines the state of the thoughts. And the physical material is absolutely necessary for normal thinking to tick along. If you were to injure your pinkie in an accident you’d be distressed, but your conscious experience would be no different. By contrast, if you were to damage an equivalently sized piece of brain tissue, this might change your capacity to understand music, name animals, see colors, judge risk, make decisions, read signals from your body, or understand the concept of a mirror—thereby unmasking the strange, veiled workings of the machinery beneath. Our hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears, comic instincts, great ideas, fetishes, senses of humor, and desires all emerge from this strange organ—and when the brain changes, so do we. So although it’s easy to intuit that thoughts don’t have a physical basis, that they are something like feathers on the wind, they in fact depend directly on the integrity of the enigmatic, three-pound mission control center.”

David Eagleman (1971) neuroscientist and author

Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain