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To verify images kills them, and it is always more enriching to imagine than to experience.
Gaston Bachelard
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Imagining holds more value than mere observation, as reality can diminish the essence of experiences.

Gaston Bachelard suggests that the act of verifying or experiencing images can strip them of their awe and mystique, leading to a less fulfilling interaction with the world. He proposes that the imagination allows us to create richer narratives and meanings than what we can derive from direct experiences, emphasizing the importance of creativity and perception in shaping our understanding of reality.

Themes

ImaginationExperiencePerceptionRealityCreativity

In practice

Example use cases

During a lecture on the importance of creativity in education, one could use this quote to emphasize the power of imagination.

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In order to dream so far, is it enough to read? Isn't it necessary to write? Write as in our schoolboy past, in those days when, as Bonnoure says, the letters wrote themselves one by one, either in their gibbosity or else in their pretentious elegance? In those days, spelling was a drama, our drama of culture at work in the interior of a word.
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How is it possible not to feel that there is communication between our solitude as a dreamer and the solitudes of childhood? And it is no accident that, in a tranquil reverie, we often follow the slope which returns us to our childhood solitudes.
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