Imagination
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on Science
“I never guess. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four, A Scandal in Bohemia British mystery author & physician (1859 – 1930)
Sir Arthur Eddington on the Universe
“Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.” Sir Arthur Eddington English astronomer (1882 – 1944)
Gilbert K. Chesterton on Imagination
“It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.” Gilbert K. Chesterton English author & mystery novelist (1874 – 1936)
Emile Chartier on Ideas
“There are only two kinds of scholars; those who love ideas and those who hate them.” Emile Chartier
Lewis Carroll on Memory
“It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backward.” Lewis Carroll English author & recreational mathematician (1832 – 1898)
Richard Brinsley Sheridan on Imagination
“He is indebted to his memory for his jests and to his imagination for his facts.” Richard Brinsley Sheridan Irish dramatist & politician (1751 – 1816)
Hector Berlioz on Ideas
“Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down.” Hector Berlioz French composer (1803 – 1869)
L. Frank Baum on Imagination
“Imagination has brought mankind through the dark ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus to discover America. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity.” L. Frank Baum
Ralph Waldo Emerson on Thoughts
“In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self Reliance” US essayist & poet (1803 – 1882)
Edgar Allan Poe on Dreams
“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” Edgar Allan Poe, “Eleonora” US short story author, editor, & poet (1809 – 1849)
Tom Stoppard on Art & Imagination
“Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.” Tom Stoppard, “Artist Descending a Staircase” British dramatist & screenwriter (1937 – )
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on Imagination
“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Bertrand Russell on Society
“Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so.” Bertrand Russell British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 – 1970)
Arthur C. Clarke on Technology
“At the present rate of progress, it is almost impossible to imagine any technical feat that cannot be achieved – if it can be achieved at all – within the next few hundred years.” Arthur C. Clarke, 1983 English physicist & science fiction author (1917 – 2008)
Leonard Bernstein on Inspiration
“Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time… The wait is simply too long.” Leonard Bernstein US composer & conductor (1918 – 1990)
Pablo Picasso on Imagination
“Everything you can imagine is real.” Pablo Picasso Spanish Cubist painter (1881 – 1973)
Pablo Picasso on Art
“There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.” Pablo Picasso Spanish Cubist painter (1881 – 1973)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Ideas
“When ideas fail, words come in very handy.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe German dramatist, novelist, poet, & scientist (1749 – 1832)
Albert Einstein on Imagination
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” Albert Einstein
Thomas A. Edison
“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” Thomas A. Edison US inventor (1847 – 1931)
Neil Armstrong on Mystery
“Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.” Neil Armstrong (1930 – 2012) Apollo 11 astronaut, first man on the Moon.
John Russell on Sanity
“Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting.” John Russell
Albert Einstein on Wisdom at Solving Problems
“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” Albert Einstein
Christopher Morley on Imagination
“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.” Christopher Morley US author & journalist (1890 – 1957)
William Shakespeare on Imagination
“The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.” William Shakespeare
Carl Sagan on Imagination
“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.” Carl Sagan
Pablo Picasso on Imagination
“I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.” Pablo Picasso
H. L. Mencken on Imagination
“Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.” H. L. Mencken US editor (1880 – 1956)
Albert Einstein on Logic and Imagination
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” Albert Einstein