Quotes on Dreams/Visions
The nature of dreams
Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
—Khalil Gibran
All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
—Edgar Allan Poe
Hope is a waking dream.
—Aristotle
Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?
—Leonardo da Vinci
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.
—Robert Fulghum
The whole life is a succession of dreams. My ambition is to be a conscious dreamer; that is all.
—Swami Vivekanada
A dream is a wish your heart makes.
—Cinderella
Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.
—Carl Jung
People think dreams aren’t real just because they aren’t made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes.
—Neil Gaiman
I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.
—Vincent Van Gogh
I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?
—Zhuangzi
Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.
—James Dean
We live between the act of awakening and the act of surrender. Each morning, we awaken to the light and the invitation to a new day in the world of time; each night, we surrender to the dark to be taken to play in the world of dreams where time is no more.
—John O’Donohue
I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?
—John Lennon
Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.
—Henry David Thoreau
The dreamer can know no truth, not even about his dream, except by awaking out of it.
—George Santayana
Reality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fevered imaginations; reality is therefore abandoned.
—Emile Durkheim
Dreams are excursions into the limbo of things, a semi-deliverance from the human prison.
—Henri Amiel
Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.
—William Dement
All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams.
—Elias Canetti
I don’t use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough.
—M. C. Escher
Dream manfully and nobly, and thy dreams shall be prophets.
—Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
Dreams say what they mean, but they don’t say it in daytime language.
—Gail Godwin
Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you.
—Marsha Norman
Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions.
—Edgar Cayce
Dreams are the guiding words of the soul. Why should I henceforth not love my dreams and not make their riddling images into objects of my daily consideration?
—Carl Jung
What is a dream? That transient power that cometh near the midnight hour. To carry me to pastures new and bid my anxious fears adieu.
—Alan Parry-Booth
Dreams are the most curious asides and soliloquies of the soul. When a man recollects his dream, it is like meeting the ghost of himself. Dreams often surprise us into the strangest self-knowledge. Dreaming is the truest confessional, and often the sharpest penance.
—Alexander Smith
Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
—Henry David Thoreau
Dreaming is an act of pure imagination, attesting in all men a creative power, which if it were available in waking, would make every man a Dante or Shakespeare.
—H.F. Hedge
Talking about dreams is like talking about movies, since the cinema uses the language of dreams; years can pass in a second, and you can hop from one place to another. It’s a language made of image. And in the real cinema, every object and every light means something, as in a dream.
—Federico Fellini
Some people ask why people would go into a dark room to be scared. I say they are already scared, and they need to have that fear manipulated and massaged. I think of horror movies as the disturbed dreams of a society.
—Wes Craven
Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,
That cannot fly.
—Langston Hughes
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d tow’rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
—Shakespeare, The Tempest
Myths are public dreams; dreams are private myths.
—Joseph Campbell
Social aspects of dreams
In dreams begins responsibility.
—William Butler Yeats
All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together.
—Jack Kerouac
Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together.
—Eugene Ionesco
You may say I’m a dreamer,
but I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you’ll join us.
And the world will live as one.
—John Lennon
Without peace, all other dreams vanish and are reduced to ashes.
—Jawaharlal Nehru
When your dreams include service to others – accomplishing something that contributes to others – it also accelerates the accomplishment of that goal. People want to be part of something that contributes and makes a difference.
—Jack Canfield
The world of men is dreaming, it has gone mad in its sleep, and a snake is strangling it, but it can’t wake up.
—D. H. Lawrence
All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
—T. E. Lawrence
The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.
—Sarah Ban Breathnach
All men of action are dreamers.
—James Huneker
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
—William Butler Yeats
I learned to dream through reading, learned to create dreams through writing, and learned to develop dreamers through teaching. I shall always be a dreamer. Come dream with me.
—Sharon Draper
Dreams as guides and goals
The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.
—James Allen
Vision gets the dreams started. Dreaming employs your God-given imagination to reinforce the vision. Both are part of something I believe is absolutely necessary to building the life of a champion…
—Emmitt Smith
When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live.
—Greg Anderson
Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.
—Gloria Steinem
Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.
—Napoleon Hill
Follow your dreams; they know the way.
—Kobe Yamada
Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
—James Allen
Without dreams, there can be no courage. And without courage, there can be no action.
—Wim Wenders
Believe in your dreams. They were given to you for a reason.
—Katrina Mayer
A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
—Oscar Wilde
Keep the faith. The vision is always for the appointed time. Be patient, prayerful and wait for the fulfillment of your visions.
—Lailah Gifty Akita
The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.
—Sigmund Freud
The interpretation of dreams is a great art.
—Paracelsus
I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.
—Khalil Gibran
You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.
—Dr. Seuss
A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.
—John Barrymore
That which the dream shows is the shadow of such wisdom as exists in man, even if during his waking state he may know nothing about it…. We do not know it because we are fooling away our time with outward and perishing things, and are asleep in regard to that which is real within ourself.
—Paracelsus
You see things; and you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?’
—George Bernard Shaw
Making dreams come true
Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.
—John Updike
Dreams can still come true; you need a great deal of energy and determination, and a little bit of luck.
—Stefano Gabbana
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
—Paul Valery
A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.
—Yoko Ono
There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.
—Douglas H. Everett
Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality.
—Jonas Salk
Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.
—Lao Tzu
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
—Harriet Tubman
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
—Eleanor Roosevelt
Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.
—Gail Devers
All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.
—Walt Disney
Believe in yourself. And believe that there is a loving Source – a Sower of Dreams – just waiting to be asked to help you make your dreams come true.
—Sarah Ban Breathnach
A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.
—Colin Powell
Honesty starts with being ourselves, authentic and true to who we are and what we believe in, and that may not always be popular, but it will always let you follow your dreams and your heart.
—Tabatha Coffey
Just follow your dreams and be patient.
—Angelique Kerber
So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.
—Christopher Reeve
It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.
—J.K. Rowling
Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.
—Les Brown
There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.
—Paulo Coelho
When you have a dream that you can’t let go of, trust your instincts and pursue it. But remember: Real dreams take work, they take patience, and sometimes they require you to dig down very deep. Be sure you’re willing to do that.
—Harvey Mackay
I’m sick of following my dreams. I’m just going to ask them where they’re goin’, and hook up with them later.
—Mitch Hedberg
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