Home / Quotes / Quote by Richard Fortey

Quote by Richard Fortey

“There are lands of the imagination that cannot exist, but seem real; and there are lands that once existed that somehow seem remote and hard to credit. Perhaps their comparative solidity depends on the hand of a skilled writer. Who can doubt the reality of the countries beyond the sea that Jonathan Swift peopled so skilfully for his hero Lemuel Gulliver to visit, not merely to stimulate the imagination, but as a ruse to illustrate human frailties: puffed up and monstrous in Brobdignag, or shrunk in Lilliput to petty proportions to match the triviality of their concerns? Yet to travel back in time to the land of the Gonds - Gondwana - or to try to grasp the reality of Pangaea 250 million years ago seems to require a greater leap of imagination. But these places existed, as solid as Africa is today.”

Quote by Richard Fortey

Book:Earth: An Intimate History

Work

Earth: An Intimate History

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Richard Fortey is a British writer born in 1946. He is renowned for his profound understanding of natural history and his unique literary style. Fortey's works span a range of subjects from paleontology to modern science, and his books have won praise from both the academic community and the general public. more

You May Also Like

“Of course I have my head in the clouds, for without that kind of perspective there’s no reason to have your feet on the ground.”

Imagination Vision Perspective Clouds Reasonable Head Ground Practical

Author:Craig D. Lounsbrough

“«[...] frequentare me, sentirmi raccontare delle mie esperienze passate, rafforza quell'idea tutta positiva e assolutamente acritica dell'altro mondo, dell'Occidente... Non so... A volte ho paura di aver...» «Di averle aiutate a crearsi una fantasia parallela», intervenne lui «che si contrappone alla sovrastruttura inventata dalla Repubblica islamica?» «Sì, sì» annuii con foga. «Be', allora, in primo luogo non è solo colpa tua. Nessuno riuscirebbe a sopravvivere nel mondo che vogliono imporci loro: dobbiamo tutti inventarci un paradiso personale verso cui evadere. Nondimeno», concluse «qualcosa che puoi fare ci sarebbe». «Davvero?» domandai ansiosa, ancora un po' avvilita, e morendo dalla voglia di ricevere istruzioni, per una volta, anziché darne. «Sì, davvero, e anzi lo stai già facendo con questo tuo seminario, se non rovini tutto. Fa' ciò che i poeti fanno con i loro re filosofi. Non c'è bisogno di creare una fantasia parallela dell'Occidente: da' alle tue ragazze il meglio di quanto l'altro mondo può offrire: la finzione letteraria - restituisci loro l'immaginazione!» concluse trionfante [...]”

Reading Literature Imagination

Book:Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Source: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

“If God has granted you the ability to think of great things, what would lead you to believe that He somehow forgot to grant you the ability to achieve them?”

God Dream Faith Imagination Achieve Opportunities Think Possibilities Achieving

Author:Craig D. Lounsbrough

“(My Childhood Imagination) All these years later, I still possess mine. My imagination is built around it, so I've never seriously considered giving it up. The stories I write now are based on games I invented as a child. Keeping my childhood magic alive means living it as it was when I was a child.”

Inspirational Imagination Childhood Motivational Inspirational Creative Writing

Author:D.L. Lewis

“Good creative works come from what's eliminated, not what's added.”

Writing Art Imagination Creativity Writing Advice Skill

Book:The Lazy Dungeon Master

Source: The Lazy Dungeon Master

“If we are in a general way permitted to regard human activity in the realm of the beautiful as a liberation of the soul, as a release from constraint and restriction, in short to consider that art does actually alleviate the most overpowering and tragic catastrophes by means of the creations it offers to our contemplation and enjoyment, it is the art of music which conducts us to the final summit of that ascent to freedom.”

Art Philosophy Music

Book:On the Arts: Selections from G.W.F. Hegel's Aesthetics or the Philosophy of Fine Art

Source: On the Arts: Selections from G.W.F. Hegel's Aesthetics or the Philosophy of Fine Art

“But literature is one of those realms in which man asserts his freedom, his spirit: in literature of a first-rate order, man attains a kind of imaginative freedom in which he asserts, implicitly, that in his spirit, he will not be the slave of fate. He assimilates tragedy, sorrow, and bitterness.”

Writing Literature Imagination James T Farrell

Author:James T. Farrell

“Much like raking leaves in the wind, I do not need to change that which appears to be against me in order to make it work for me. I only need enough imagination to understand how the nature of what it does can help me achieve the goal that I want to accomplish.”

Wisdom Goal Nature Imagination Behavior Advantage Manipulate Leaves

Author:Craig D. Lounsbrough

“I have a lot of edges called Perhaps and almost nothing you can call Certainty.”

Imagination Mystery

Author:Mary Oliver

“The stuff of imagination is not simply to let one’s mind run wild with things grand, magical and altogether wonderful. Rather, the stuff of imagination is recognizing the responsibility that one has to seize those things with all of one’s might and to wrestle them back into this world. And we must do that not only because this is where they belong, but more importantly, this is where they are needed.”

Faith Imagination Vision Dreams Needed Encouragement Lie Belong Realities

Author:Craig D. Lounsbrough