Sometimes, I think the best kind of poem is one in which there is an acute balance between what is humorous and that which is very serious. That balance is very hard to strike. But it can be done.
N. Scott MomadayRead
We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves. Our best destiny is to imagine, at least, completely, who and what, and that we are. The greatest tragedy that can befall us is to go unimagined.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our identities and destinies are shaped by our imagination and self-perception.
This quote by N. Scott Momaday emphasizes the profound role that imagination plays in defining who we are and the lives we lead. It suggests that our existence is heavily influenced by how we envision ourselves, and failing to imagine our potential can lead to a life unfulfilled and without direction. The idea is that our dreams and aspirations are essential to realizing our true selves, making it crucial to harness our imagination in order to achieve our best outcomes and avoid a life of mediocrity.
Themes
ImaginationSelfIdentityPotentialExistenceDestiny
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about pursuing dreams and goals.
More from N. Scott Momaday
All quotes →For the storyteller, for the arrowmaker, language does indeed represent the only chance for survival.
N. Scott MomadayRead
There is a great good in returning to a landscape that has had extraordinary meaning in one's life. It happens that we return to such places in our minds irresistibly. There are certain villages and towns, mountains and plains that, having seen them walked in them lived in them even for a day, we keep forever in the mind's eye. They become indispensable to our well-being; they define us, and we say, I am who I am because I have been there, or there.
N. Scott MomadayRead
Writing is not a matter of choice. Writers have to write. It is somehow in their temperament, in the blood, in tradition.
N. Scott MomadayRead
My father was a painter and he taught art. He once said to me, 'I never knew an Indian child who could not draw.'
N. Scott MomadayRead
Indians are marvelous storytellers. In some ways, that oral tradition is stronger than the written tradition.
N. Scott MomadayRead
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