"The words of the world want to make sentences."

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

"a country which has many points of contact with ours and which has launched one of the mightiest experiments in history. All the world is watching her, some with fear and hatred, and others with passi…"

— Jawaharlal Nehru

Politics1889–1964

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"From that place the Sultan proceeded to a certain city, which was accounted holy by the people of the country. In that city the men of Ghaznin saw so many strange and wonderful things, that to tell th…"

— Mahmud of Ghazni

Military971–1030

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"My own views on all matters of public revenue and public expenditure are conditioned by an acute appreciation of whose is the sacrifice that produces public revenue and to whom accrues the benefit of …"

— John James Cowperthwaite

Economics1915–2006

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"Painting is a very difficult thing. It absorbs the whole man, body and soul – thus I have passed blindly many things which belong to the real and political life. I assume, though, that there are two w…"

— Max Beckmann

Art1884–1950

#religion