Skip to content
quotesby

Of our studies it is impossible to speak, since they held so slight a connection with anything of the world as living men conceive it. They were of that vaster and more appalling universe of dim entity and consciousness which lies deeper than matter, time, and space, and whose existence we suspect only in certain forms of sleep - those rare dreams beyond dreams which come never to common men, and but once or twice in the lifetime of imaginative men. The cosmos of our waking knowledge, born from such an universe as a bubble is born from the pipe of a jester, touches it only as such a bubble may touch its sardonic source when sucked back by the jester's whim. Men of learning suspect it little and ignore it mostly. Wise men have interpreted dreams, and the gods have laughed. One man with Oriental eyes has said that all time and space are relative, and men have laughed. But even that man with Oriental eyes has done no more than suspect....

H. P. Lovecraft#42

DreamsKnowledgePhilosophyRealityCosmos

About this quote

What does it mean?
True knowledge lies in a deeper, dreamlike universe beyond ordinary reality that only a few glimpse.
In plain terms
Our real understanding comes from dreams and mysteries we usually ignore.
What can you take from it?
Most people ignore the deeper truths of existence that only appear in rare dreams.

Where it applies

  • philosophical inquiry
  • deep thinking
  • interpreting dreams

Putting it to work

  • studying psychology
  • writing fiction
  • seeking truth

Questions to consider

  • What do your dreams reveal about you?
  • Is reality just one layer of existence?

Another view

It dismisses ordinary human understanding as shallow without proof.

More from H. P. Lovecraft

  1. May the merciful gods, if indeed there be such, guard those hours when no power of the will, or drug that the cunning of man devises, can keep me from the chas…

    Permalink to quote #41
  2. Among the agonies of these after days is that chief of torments - inarticulateness. What I learned and saw in those hours of impious exploration can never be t…

    Permalink to quote #43
  3. Above the mists on Hatheg-Kla, earth's gods sometimes dance reminiscently; for they know they are safe, and love to come from unknown Kadath in ships of clouds…

    Permalink to quote #40

Related quotes

  1. How do I know that enjoying life is not a delusion? How do I know that in hating death we are not like people who got lost in early childhood and do not know t…

    ZhuangziZhuangzi quote #2
  2. There comes a point when a dream becomes reality and reality becomes a dream.

    Frances FarmerFrances Farmer quote #3
  3. The only certainty is that nothing is certain.

    Pliny the ElderPliny the Elder quote #3