Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
A state of pure imagination exists without desire or specific naming.
In plain terms
You can imagine things well without needing names or wants.
What can you take from it?
Pure imagination requires no desire or labels.

Where it applies

  • meditation
  • artistic inspiration
  • dreaming

Putting it to work

  • visualize without judgment
  • practice neutral observation

Questions to consider

  • Can you imagine without wanting something?
  • Is a name needed for an idea?

Another view

Without desire or direction, imagination may lack purpose.

More from Wallace Stevens

  1. Not to be realized because not to Be seen, not to be loved nor hated because Not to be realized.

    Permalink to quote #105
  2. My house has changed a little in the sun. The fragrance of the magnolias come close, False flick, false form, but falseness close to kin.

    Permalink to quote #107
  3. Yet voluble of dumb violence. You look Across the roofs as sigil and as ward And in your centre mark them and are cowed . . .

    Permalink to quote #104

Related quotes

  1. Transforma-se o amador na cousa amada, Por virtude do muito imaginar; Nao tenho, logo, mais que desejar, Pois em mim tenho a parte desejada.

    Luis de CamoesLuis de Camoes quote #1
  2. Here in a little lonely room I am master of earth and sea, And the planets come to me.

    Arthur SymonsArthur Symons quote #4
  3. I knew I wouldn't ever trade all this whirling about my head for Russia or heaven or anything on earth.

    Henry MillerHenry Miller quote #7