„There, Master Niketas," Baudolino said, "when I was not prey to the temptations of this world, I devoted my nights to imagining other worlds. … There is nothing better than imagining other worlds," he said, "to forget the painful one we live in. At least so I thought then. I hadn't yet realized that, imagining other worlds, you end up changing this one.“

„When people questioned this, the priests simply said, The world has changed. We must change with it.
You can imagine how well that went over.“

—  N. K. Jemisin, book The Broken Kingdoms

Source: The Broken Kingdoms (2011), Chapter 4 “Frustration” (watercolor) (p. 60)

„I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.“

—  Albert Einstein German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity 1879 - 1955

1920s, Viereck interview (1929)

„You're better equipped for this world than I am," she said. "I'm always trying to change the world. You know how to live in it.“

—  Tom Robbins, book Still Life with Woodpecker

Source: Still Life with Woodpecker

„The only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world. That's what poetry does. By poetry I mean the imagining of what has been lost and what can be found—the imagining of who we are and the slow realization of it.“

—  Allen Ginsberg American poet 1926 - 1997

As quoted in C. F. Main & Peter J. Seng, Poems (Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1973), p. 3

„I wanted my wife to realize clearly one long-term penalty, for herself and for the children, of the step I was taking. I said: "You know, we are leaving the winning world for the losing world."“

—  Whittaker Chambers, Witness

Source: Witness (1952), p. 25

„Trembling I sit day and night, my friends are astonish’d at me.
Yet they forgive my wanderings, I rest not from my great task!
To open the Eternal Worlds, to open the immortal Eyes
Of Man inwards into the Worlds of Thought: into Eternity
Ever expanding in the Bosom of God. the Human Imagination“

—  William Blake English Romantic poet and artist 1757 - 1827

Source: 1800s, Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion (c. 1803–1820), Ch. 1, plate 5, lines 16-20 The Words of Blake

„Progressives find it hard to imagine that there are others who in good faith don’t want the better world they’re offering and will fiercely resist it.“

—  George Packer American journalist and writer 1960

' Witnessing the Obama Presidency, from Start to Finish https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/06/18/witnessing-the-obama-presidency-from-start-to-finish' by George Packer, The New Yorker, June 18, 2018.

„I don't recall that I have said — and I don't think that I really feel — that we need a world government. We need governments of the world that work together and collaborate. But, I can't imagine that there would be any likelihood — or even that it would be desirable — to have a single government elected by the people of the world.“

—  David Rockefeller American banker and philanthropist 1915 - 2017

In an interview with Benjamin Fulford (13 November 2007) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3704527408635856046

„When I was a kid I believed everything I was told, everything I read, and every dispatch sent out by my own overheated imagination. This made for more than a few sleepless nights, but it also filled the world I lived in with colors and textures I would not have traded for a lifetime of restful nights.“

—  Stephen King, book Nightmares & Dreamscapes

Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993), Introduction

„Imagine a world that seemed so much bigger than you. Imagine waking up one morning and finding a piece of yourself you didn't even know existed.“

—  Jodi Picoult, book Nineteen Minutes

Source: Nineteen Minutes

„He thought there was no hope for him. Me? I can't imagine a world without hope.“

—  Richelle Mead American writer 1976

„The world before us is a postcard, and I imagine the story we are writing on it.“

—  Mary E. Pearson young-adult fiction writer 1955

Source: The Miles Between

„I cannot imagine a world without music. It would be... well, I cannot imagine it.“

—  Gloria Estefan Cuban-American singer-songwriter, actress and divorciada 1957

Berklee College of Music commencement address (May 12, 2007)
2007, 2008

„I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh.“

—  Jane Austen, book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

„Then I began to think that it is very true which is commonly said, that the one half of the world knoweth not how the other half liveth.“

—  Francois Rabelais, book Gargantua and Pantagruel

Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Gargantua (1534), Chapter 32.

„I spin worlds where we could be together. I dream you. For me, imagination and desire are very close.“

—  Jeanette Winterson English writer 1959

„The straight world didn't end. The straight world and the other world had bled into one another and produced the world that we live in today.“

—  William Gibson American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and founder of the cyberpunk subgenre 1948

No Maps for These Territories (2000)

„I believe that the imagination is the passport we create to take us into the real world. I believe the imagination is another phrase for what is most uniquely us.“

—  John Guare, Six Degrees of Separation

Source: Six Degrees of Separation

„… there were certain chapters when I stopped writing, saw the domestic situation I was in and thought, "I don't want to face this world, let's get back to the hellish one I'm imagining.“

—  Alasdair Gray Scottish writer and artist 1934 - 2019