--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Perhaps it is even a good idea to stir up…" description: "\"Perhaps it is even a good idea to stir up a rivalry between conceptual and imaginative activity. In any case, one will encounter nothing but disappoint..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/60a/gaston-bachelard-2318_activity_perhaps-it-is-even-a-good-idea-to-stir-u_500609.png" --- # Perhaps it is even a good idea to stir up a rivalry… ![“Perhaps it is even a good idea to stir up a rivalry between conceptual and imaginative activity. In any case, one will encounter nothing but disappointments if he intends to make them cooperate. The image can not provide matter for a concept. By giving stability to the image, the concept would…” quote by Gaston Bachelard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/60a/gaston-bachelard-2318_activity_perhaps-it-is-even-a-good-idea-to-stir-u_500609.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/60a/gaston-bachelard-2318_activity_perhaps-it-is-even-a-good-idea-to-stir-u_500609.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/60a/gaston-bachelard-2318_activity_perhaps-it-is-even-a-good-idea-to-stir-u_500609.png) > “Perhaps it is even a good idea to stir up a rivalry between conceptual and imaginative activity. In any case, one will encounter nothing but disappointments if he intends to make them cooperate. The image can not provide matter for a concept. By giving stability to the image, the concept would stifle its life.” [Gaston Bachelard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gaston-bachelard/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Concepts and imagination clash; forcing them together can stifle creativity and cause disappointment. **In simple terms:** Concepts and imagination conflict. Key Takeaway Balance stability with freedom. Themes creativity philosophy conflict Mood analytical inquisitive Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - artistic creation - scientific research - design thinking - education Key Concepts conceptual analysis imaginative freedom Questions to Reflect On - When have you felt constrained by rigid ideas? - How can you nurture both concept and imagination? A Different Perspective Too much stability can kill imagination. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Creativity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/creativity/) [Disappointment](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/disappointment/) [Encounters](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/encounters/) [Giving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/giving/) [Good ideas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/good-ideas/) [Ideas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ideas/) [Imagination](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/imagination/) [Imaginative](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/imaginative/) [Rivalry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rivalry/) [Stability](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/stability/) ## Related quotes > [In the particular dwells the tawdry. In the conceptual dwells the grand, the transcendent, the everlasting. Earthly countries and single malignant boys can go…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lionel-shriver/in-the-particular-dwells-the-tawdry-in-the-conceptual-dwells-the/) [Lionel Shriver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lionel-shriver/) > [What makes something simple or complex? It's not the number of dials or controls or how many features it has: It is whether the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-a-norman/what-makes-something-simple-or-complex-it-s-not-the-number-of-dials/) [Donald A. Norman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-a-norman/) > [Music bypasses the conceptual mind. Music does not give you food for thought...](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eckhart-tolle/music-bypasses-the-conceptual-mind-music-does-not-give-you-food-for/) [Eckhart Tolle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eckhart-tolle/) > [Conceptual art became the liberating idea that gave the art of the next 40 years its real impetus.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sol-lewitt/conceptual-art-became-the-liberating-idea-that-gave-the-art-of-the/) [Sol LeWitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sol-lewitt/) > [I had never thought that I would be involved in narrative structures. As a young guy, I was more interested in abstract modeling. But…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-braxton/i-had-never-thought-that-i-would-be-involved-in-narrative-structures/) [Anthony Braxton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-braxton/) > [Our talk of external things, our very notion of things, is just a conceptual apparatus that helps us to foresee and control the triggerings…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/willard-van-orman-quine/our-talk-of-external-things-our-very-notion-of-things-is-just-a/) [Willard Van Orman Quine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/willard-van-orman-quine/) > [Out of time we cut 'days' and 'nights', 'summers' and 'winters.' We say what, each part of the sensible continuum is, and all these…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-james/out-of-time-we-cut-days-and-nights-summers-and-winters-we-say-what/) [William James](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-james/) > [“World’s religions are conceptual. There are two parts in these concepts! One is auspicious and the other is inauspicious. World’s religions are into (doing)…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dada-bhagwan/world-s-religions-are-conceptual-there-are-two-parts-in-these/) [Dada Bhagwan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dada-bhagwan/) > [I am not really interested in clothing as a conceptual art form.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/issey-miyake/i-am-not-really-interested-in-clothing-as-a-conceptual-art-form/) [Issey Miyake](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/issey-miyake/) > [I've come up through art school, through painting, through graphic design, through advertising, through TV commercials and music video. I've designed books, built billboards,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tony-kaye/i-ve-come-up-through-art-school-through-painting-through-graphic/) [Tony Kaye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tony-kaye/) > [Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world and how we relate to other people. Our conceptual system thus…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-lakoff/our-concepts-structure-what-we-perceive-how-we-get-around-in-the/) [George Lakoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-lakoff/) > [I doubt there's any government in the world that guides itself primarily by strategy or conceptual documents or worldview. Anybody who has the reins…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barton-gellman/i-doubt-there-s-any-government-in-the-world-that-guides-itself/) [Barton Gellman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barton-gellman/) > [When I was starting out, conceptual photography had become something that had to be amateur - like, that had to be black-and-white, or photocopied,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elad-lassry/when-i-was-starting-out-conceptual-photography-had-become-something/) [Elad Lassry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elad-lassry/) > [Conceptual relativism is a heady and exotic doctrine, or would be if we could make good sense of it. The trouble is, as so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-davidson/conceptual-relativism-is-a-heady-and-exotic-doctrine-or-would-be-if/) [Donald Davidson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-davidson/) > [I just happened to start playing music for the conceptual ideas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-gordon/i-just-happened-to-start-playing-music-for-the-conceptual-ideas/) [Kim Gordon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-gordon/) ## More by Gaston Bachelard > [Dreaming by the river, I dedicated my imagination to water, to clear, green water, the water that makes the meadows green.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gaston-bachelard/dreaming-by-the-river-i-dedicated-my-imagination-to-water-to-clear/) [Gaston Bachelard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gaston-bachelard/) > [If we did not have a feminine being within us, how would we rest ourselves?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gaston-bachelard/if-we-did-not-have-a-feminine-being-within-us-how-would-we-rest/) [Gaston Bachelard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gaston-bachelard/) > [The image can only be studied through the image, by dreaming images as they gather in reverie. 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One hears them with their sounds divorced.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gaston-bachelard/in-writing-you-discover-interior-sonorities-in-words-dipthongs-sound/) [Gaston Bachelard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gaston-bachelard/) > [Here we are at the very core of the thesis we wish to defend in the present essay: reverie is under the sign of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gaston-bachelard/here-we-are-at-the-very-core-of-the-thesis-we-wish-to-defend-in-the/) [Gaston Bachelard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gaston-bachelard/) > [There are children who will leave a game to go and be bored in a corner of the garret. How often have I wished…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gaston-bachelard/there-are-children-who-will-leave-a-game-to-go-and-be-bored-in-a/) [Gaston Bachelard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gaston-bachelard/) > [Ideas are refined and multiplied in the commerce of minds. 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It…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gaston-bachelard/imagination-is-a-tree-it-has-the-integrative-virtues-of-a-tree-it-is/) [Gaston Bachelard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gaston-bachelard/) > [Two half philosophers will probably never a whole metaphysician make.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gaston-bachelard/two-half-philosophers-will-probably-never-a-whole-metaphysician-make/) [Gaston Bachelard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gaston-bachelard/) > [Irony gives us, at little expense, the impression that we are experienced psychologists.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gaston-bachelard/irony-gives-us-at-little-expense-the-impression-that-we-are/) [Gaston Bachelard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gaston-bachelard/) [Explore all 166 Gaston Bachelard quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gaston-bachelard/) ## More Activity quotes > [Where I grew up, learning was a collective activity. But when I got to school and tried to share learning with other students that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-giroux/where-i-grew-up-learning-was-a-collective-activity-but-when-i-got-to/) [Henry Giroux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-giroux/) > [It must be assumed and established as a principle, that the right of private property must be regarded as sacred. Wherefore, the law ought…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pope-leo-xiii/it-must-be-assumed-and-established-as-a-principle-that-the-right-of/) [Pope Leo XIII](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pope-leo-xiii/) > [Each man is capable of doing one thing well. If he attempts several, he will fail to achieve distinction in any.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/plato/each-man-is-capable-of-doing-one-thing-well-if-he-attempts-several-he/) [Plato](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/plato/) > [And also I think the rise of other, you could say, destinations for international jihadis mean that Pakistan isn't necessarily the place where people…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mohsin-hamid/and-also-i-think-the-rise-of-other-you-could-say-destinations-for/) [Mohsin Hamid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mohsin-hamid/) > [To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-tolstoy/to-evoke-in-oneself-a-feeling-one-has-once-experienced-and-having/) [Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-tolstoy/) > [Fighting's fun, man. It's a great activity, it's a great sport.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matt-mitrione/fighting-s-fun-man-it-s-a-great-activity-it-s-a-great-sport/) [Matt Mitrione](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matt-mitrione/) > [There were books everywhere in my house. Books were very present. I just loved books. I never understood reading as anything but a pleasurable…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lisa-lucas/there-were-books-everywhere-in-my-house-books-were-very-present-i/) [Lisa Lucas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lisa-lucas/) > [For war to man, like childbirth to women, is simplifying in its emotions and activities. All the real problems of life can be put…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pearl-s-buck/for-war-to-man-like-childbirth-to-women-is-simplifying-in-its/) [Pearl S. 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