More from Gaston Bachelard

  1. True poetry is a function of awakening. It awakens us, but it must retain the memory of previous dreams.
  2. If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the …
  3. A man is a man to the extent that he is a superman. A man should be defined by the sum of those tendencies which impel him to surpass the h…
  4. Words ... are little houses, each with its cellar and garret. Common sense lives on the ground floor, always ready to engage in 'foreign co…
  5. To disappear into deep water or to disappear toward a far horizon, to become part of depth of infinity, such is the destiny of man that fin…
  6. The mollusk's motto would be: one must live to build one's house, and not build one's house to live in.
  7. Man is a creation of desire, not a creation of need.
  8. Poetry is one of the destinies of speech.... One would say that the poetic image, in its newness, opens a future to language.

All Gaston Bachelard quotes