It is not a question of observation which propels mankind forward as if toward a looking glass of great magnitude; it is an instance of aggrandized reflection that insinuates the human psyche to the inhuman. — Gaston Bachelard Copy Share Image
Of course, a psychologist would find it more direct to study the inspired poet. He would make concrete studies of inspiration in individual geniuses. But for all that, would he experience the phenomena of inspiration? His human documentation gathered from… — Gaston Bachelard Copy Share Image
Dreaming by the river, I dedicated my imagination to water, to clear, green water, the water that makes the meadows green. — Gaston Bachelard Copy Share Image
If we did not have a feminine being within us, how would we rest ourselves? — Gaston Bachelard Copy Share Image
The image can only be studied through the image, by dreaming images as they gather in reverie. It is a non-sense to claim to… — Gaston Bachelard Copy Share Image
If there is any realm where distinction is especially difficult, it is the realm of childhood memories, the realm of beloved images harbored in… — Gaston Bachelard Copy Share Image
In scientific thought, the concept functions all the better for being cut off from all background images. In its full exercise, the scientific concept… — Gaston Bachelard Copy Share Image
It is through the intentionality of poetic imagination that the poet's soul discovers the opening of consciousness common to all true poetry. — Gaston Bachelard Copy Share Image
In writing, you discover interior sonorities in words. Dipthongs sound differently beneath the pen. One hears them with their sounds divorced. — Gaston Bachelard Copy Share Image
Here we are at the very core of the thesis we wish to defend in the present essay: reverie is under the sign of… — Gaston Bachelard Copy Share Image
There are children who will leave a game to go and be bored in a corner of the garret. How often have I wished… — Gaston Bachelard Copy Share Image
Ideas are refined and multiplied in the commerce of minds. In their splendor, images effect a very simple communion of souls. — Gaston Bachelard Copy Share Image
The poetic image is a sudden salience on the surface of the psyche — Gaston Bachelard Copy Share Image
In our view any awareness is an increment to consciousness, an added light, a reinforcement of psychic coherence. Its swiftness or instantaneity can hide… — Gaston Bachelard Copy Share Image
