“And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you'd be?”
Lewis Carroll book Through the Looking-Glass
Source: Through the Looking Glass
Quotes about dreams page 4
“Life, what is it but a dream?”
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer
“I always dream of a pen that would be a syringe.”
Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) French philosopher (1930-2004)
Source: Jacques Derrida
“He was part of my dream, of course -- but then I was part of his dream, too.”
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer
“In dreams begins responsibility.”
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright
Variant: In Dreams begins Responsibility.
Source: Epigraph to the book Responsibilities (1914); this was later adapted as the title of the story "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" (1937) by Delmore Schwartz.
“love is dangerous for your tiny heart even in your dreams so please dream softly”
Mathias Malzieu book La Mécanique du cœur
Source: La Mécanique du cœur
“It’s a story of love, of hatred, and of the dreams that live in the shadow of the wind.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind
Source: The Shadow of the Wind
“Are you sure/That we are awake? It seems to me/That yet we sleep, we dream”
William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream
Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream
“Life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves.”
Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian
“In Genua, someone set out to make dreams come true. Remember some of your dreams?”
Terry Pratchett book Witches Abroad
Source: Witches Abroad
Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)
“Night can't cloak your scarlet dream. Accept Desire's call.”
P. C. Cast book Betrayed
Source: Betrayed
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2008, Election victory speech (November 2008)
“You're something between a dream and a miracle.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet, author
“Sweet dreams though the guns are booming.”
Erich Maria Remarque book All Quiet on the Western Front
Source: All Quiet on the Western Front
William C. Dement (1928) American sleep researcher
“Between living and dreaming there is a third thing. Guess it.”
Antonio Machado (1875–1939) Spanish poet
“Once a day allow yourself the freedom to dream…”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Variant: At least once a day, allow yourself the freedom to think and dream for yourself.
“We are close to waking when we dream that we are dreaming.”
Novalis (1772–1801) German poet and writer
Variants:
Novalis (1829)
Variant: We are near awakening when we dream that we dream.
Source: Novalis: Philosophical Writings
“Focus more on your desire than on your doubt, and the dream will take care of itself.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
“I live not in dreams but in contemplation of a reality that is perhaps the future.”
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer
“Only the magic and the dream are true — all the rest's a lie.”
Jean Rhys book Wide Sargasso Sea
Source: Wide Sargasso Sea
“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
“Keep your dreams, you never know when you might need them.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind
Source: The Shadow of the Wind
“Whatever you do or dream you can do—begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.”
Jennifer Donnelly (1963) American writer
Source: Deep Blue
C.G. Jung book Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle
Source: Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle
“I am not just what I remember. I am also what I dream.”
Margaret Peterson Haddix (1964) American author
“The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
Umberto Eco (1932–2016) Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist
Source: "Why Are They Laughing In Those Cages?", in Travels in Hyperreality : Essays (1986), Ch. III : The Gods of the Underworld, p. 122
Context: The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. If it had been possible he would have settled the matter otherwise, and without bloodshed.
Context: The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. If it had been possible he would have settled the matter otherwise, and without bloodshed. He doesn't boast of his own death or of others'. But he does not repent. He suffers and keeps his mouth shut; if anything, others then exploit him, making him a myth, while he, the man worthy of esteem, was only a poor creature who reacted with dignity and courage in an event bigger than he was.
Steven Spielberg (1946) American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur
Time (July 15, 1985)
“Most people who fail in their dream fail not from lack of ability but from lack of commitment.”
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker
Source: See You at the Top
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus
Source: Victor Frankenstein in Ch. 5
“Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become.”
John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic
“So long ago, was it in a dream, was it just a dream?”
John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter
Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author
Source: Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day
David Lynch (1946) American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor
Source: Lynch on Lynch
“… the man of my dreams is a girl.”
Julie Anne Peters book Keeping You a Secret
Variant: Cut the ending. Revise the script. The man of her dreams is a girl.
Source: Keeping You a Secret
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
“I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.”
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
The Ballot or the Bullet (1964), Speech in Cleveland, Ohio (April 3, 1964)
Context: No, I’m not an American. I’m one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, I’m not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver—no, not I. I’m speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.
Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) English actor, writer, and dramatist
As quoted in The Independent (25 February 1989)
“The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.”
Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831) German-Prussian soldier and military theorist
“Let us sculpt in hopeless silence all our dreams of speaking.”
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher
Rainer Maria Rilke book The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
Source: The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
Virginia Woolf book The Waves
Bernard, section IX
Source: The Waves (1931)
Context: Our friends, how seldom visited, how little known — it is true; and yet, when I meet an unknown person, and try to break off, here at this table, what I call “my life”, it is not one life that I look back upon; I am not one person; I am many people; I do not altogether know who I am — Jinny, Susan, Neville, Rhoda, or Louis; or how to distinguish my life from theirs.
“I am the shadow on the moon at night/Filling your dreams to the brim with fright.”
Tim Burton (1958) American filmmaker