Gaston Bachelard Quotes

Here the phenomenologist has nothing in common with the literary critic who, as has frequently been ...

Therefore, the places in which we have experienced daydreaming reconstitute themselves in a new dayd...

I am alone so I dream of the being who has cured my solitude, who would be cured by solitudes. With ...

For a knowledge of intimacy, localization in the spaces of our intimacy is more urgent than determin...

Therefore, the places in which we have experienced day dreaming reconstitute themselves in a new day...

I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one ...

When the image is new, the world is new.

Here is Menard's own intimate forest: 'Now I am traversed by bridle paths, under the seal of sun and...

We comfort ourselves by reliving memories of protection. Something closed must retain our memories, ...

Reveries of idealization develop, not by letting oneself be taken in by memories, but by constantly ...

The repose of sleep refreshes only the body. It rarely sets the soul at rest. The repose of the nigh...

A creature that hides and “withdraws into its shell,” is preparing a “way out.” This is true of the ...

Would a bird build its nest if it did not have its instinct for confidence in the world?

Sometimes the house of the future is better built, lighter and larger than all the houses of the pas...

There is no original truth, only original error.

The characteristic of scientific progress is our knowing that we did not know.

Childhood is a human water, a water which comes out of the shadows. This childhood in the mists and ...

Words are little houses, each with its cellar and garret. Common-sense lives on the ground floor, al...

If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters day-dreamin...

Of course, thanks to the house, a great many of our memories are housed, and if the house is a bit e...

Baudelaire writes: In certain almost supernatural inner states, the depth of life is entirely reveal...

The philosophy of poetry must acknowledge that the poetic act has no past, at least no recent past, ...

A word is a bud attempting to become a twig. How can one not dream while writing? It is the pen whic...

A special kind of beauty exists which is born in language, of language, and for language.

So like a forgotten fire a childhood can always flare up again within us.

Contemplating a flame perpetuates a primordial reverie. It separates us from the world and enlarges ...

Even a minor event in the life of a child is an event of that child's world and thus a world event

One must always maintain one’s connection to the past and yet ceaselessly pull away from it. To rema...

To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in...

Wolves in shells are crueler than stray ones.

How concrete everything becomes in the world of the spirit when an object, a mere door, can give ima...

We must listen to poets.

Rilke wrote: 'These trees are magnificent, but even more magnificent is the sublime and moving space...