Gaston Bachelard Quotes

The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.

The universe is real, but you can't see it. You have to imagine it.

The bulk of the world's knowledge is an imaginary construction.

I secretly think reality exists so we can speculate about it.

A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding.

A concept is stronger than a fact.

It's always interesting just to see how the human mind is relating to the natural universe, and what we try to make of it just so we can believe we understand what's going on.

Man can embody truth but he cannot know it.

I teach at Harvard that the world and the heavens, and the stars are all real, but not so damned real, you see.

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.

I believe in general in a dualism between facts and the ideas of those facts in human heads.

Art has a double face, of expression and illusion, just like science has a double face: the reality of error and the phantom of truth.

Every day, I read books on philosophy and science fiction and human consciousness.

Sometimes, surely, truth is closer to imagination or to intelligence, to love than to fact? To be accurate is not to be right.

That in the beginning when the world was young there were a great many thoughts but no such thing as truth. Man made the truths himself and each truth was a composite of a great many vague thoughts. All about in the world were truths and they were all beautiful.

All thought must, directly or indirectly, by way of certain characters, relate ultimately to intuitions, and therefore, with us, to sensibility, because in no other way can an object be given to us.

It is fun to try figure out the things that really are real and the things that aren't.

The dreamer can know no truth, not even about his dream, except by awaking out of it.

Facts are better than dreams.

I would designate as science fiction in the best sense: they are visions and anticipations by which we seek to attain a true knowledge, but, in fact, they are only imaginations whereby we seek to draw near to the reality.

We think that - as kids, you know - that kids make up stories and live in a sort of fictional place, but that, as grown-ups, we tell the truth and live in fact. But, of course, the reality is we take the facts that we know, and then we fill in all the blanks.

Even under the most favorable circumstances no mortal can be asked to seize the truth in its wholeness or at its center.

It was better for me when I could imagine greatness in others, even if it wasn't always there.

Who would ever give up the reality of dreams for relative knowledge?

What you can imagine depends on what you know.