"One must always maintain one’s connection to the past and yet ceaselessly pull away from it. To remain in touch with the past requires a love of memory. To remain in touch with the past requires a constant imaginative effort."

Gaston Bachelard Philosophy See all quotes by Gaston Bachelard →

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More by Gaston Bachelard

“A word is a bud attempting to become a twig. How can one not dream while writing? It is the pen which dreams. The blank page gives the right to dream.”

“Reverie is not a mind vacuum. It is rather the gift of an hour which knows the plenitude of the soul.”

“Ideas are refined and multiplied in the commerce of minds. In their splendor, images effect a very simple communion of souls.”

“True poetry is a function of awakening. It awakens us, but it must retain the memory of previous dreams.”

“Man is a creation of desire, not a creation of need.”

“Poetry is one of the destinies of speech.... One would say that the poetic image, in its newness, opens a future to language.”

Resonant Thoughts

"On the whole, I'm a positive, skippity-la-la person but I love the dark side of music and I will always want to explore that. It's a positive-sounding album but there's stuff underneath for sure."

— KT Tunstall

Music1975

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"There is not a man or woman, who violates the covenants made with their God, that will not be required to pay the debt. The blood of Christ will never wipe that out, your own blood must atone for it; …"

— Brigham Young

Politics1801–1877

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"I'm not choosy at all! I'll do practically anything. I'm the biggest whore on the block. I live in a little town in Montana, and you have to drag me out of here to get to L.A., so I'm not readily avai…"

— Margot Kidder

Entertainment1948–2018

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"We must be something in order to do something, but we must also do something in order to be something. The best rule, I think, is this: If we find it hard to do good, then let us try to be good. If, o…"

— James Freeman Clarke

Politics1810–1888

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