Quotes About Imagination

When they got the results, they were clear. The more novels you read, the better you were at reading other people's emotions. It was a huge effect. This wasn't just a sign that you were better educated—because reading nonfiction books, by contrast, had no effect on your empathy.

fiction is a kind of empathy gym,

Third, during mind-wandering, your mind will—Nathan said—engage in "mental time-travel," where it roams over the past and tries to predict the future.

more free play they get, the more sound a foundation they will have for their focus and attention.

As a society, we are dreaming less and less.

simplest and most common forms of flow that people experience in their lives is reading a book

reading fiction, over time, boosts your empathy.

Reading is a unique form of consciousness, while we read we direct attention outward to the page but also at the same time inwards as we imagine and mentally stimulate.

Oh, diese Eifersucht ist noch viel unbegreiflicher als unsre Liebe, denn wir können doch nicht alle Weiber und Mädchen zu unserm Eigentum machen; aber das lüsterne Auge läßt sich keine Schranken setzen, unsre Phantasie ist wie das Faß der Danaiden, unser Sehnen umfängt und umarmt jeglichen Busen.«

Beauty is a primeval phenomenon. It never makes an appearance itself, but is a visible reflection in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind. It is as various as nature herself.

Los dolores serían menores entre los hombres si éstos (Dios sabe por qué están hechos así) no se ocuparan con tanto ahínco de imaginación en evocar los recuerdos de los males pasados en vez de soportar un presente tolerable.

Only the perverse fantasy can still save us.

One ought, each day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture and, if possible, speak a few reasonable words.

Personality is everything in art and poetry.

Unlike grown ups, children have little need to deceive themselves.

Superstition is the poetry of life.

There is no surer method of evading the world than by following Art, and no surer method of linking oneself to it than by Art.

Who wants to understand the poemMust go to the land of poetry;Who wishes to understand the poetMust go to the poet's land.

Individuality of expression is the beginning and end of all art.

The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art.

Of all peoples the Greeks have dreamt the dream of life best.

Nothing is more fearful than imagination without taste.

The biggest problem with every art is by the use of appearance to create a loftier reality.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them