“We began as mineral. We emerged into plant life, and into the animal state, and then into being human, and always we have forgotten our former states, except in early spring when we slightly recall being green again.” HumansStatesAnimalSpringGreenPlantForgottenFormerRecallsBeing HumanMineralsPlant LifeEarly Spring Book:Selected poems Source: Selected poems
“We say that we often see animals in our dreams, but we forget that almost always we are ourselves animals therein, deprived of that reasoning power which projects upon things the light of certainty; on the contrary we bring to bear on the spectacle of life only a dubious vision, extinguished anew every moment by oblivion, the former reality fading before that which follows it as one projection of a magic lantern fades before the next as we change the slide.” MomentsDreamRealityLightNextForgetAnimalVisionMagicBearsProjectsContraryCertaintyFormerReasoningFadesOur DreamsOblivionDeprivedProjectionSlidesFadingDubiousLanterns Book:Remembrance of Things Past: Swann's way. Within a budding grove Source: Remembrance of Things Past: Swann's way. Within a budding grove
“Fancy, an animal faculty, is very different from imagination, which is intellectual. The former is passive; but the latter is active and creative. Children, the weak minded, and the timid are full of fancy. Men and women of intellect, of great intellect, are alone possessed of great imagination.” MenChildrenDifferentImaginationAnimalCreativeIntellectualMen And WomenWeakIntellectActiveFormerFancyLatterFacultyPossessedPassiveGreat Imagination Book:Pensées of Joubert Source: Pensées of Joubert