Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared - JK Rowling, http://harvardmagazine.com/go/jkrowling.html
If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales - Albert Einstein
Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real - Jules Verne
Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths - Joseph Campbell
Coming across this quote reminds me that Campbell's four Masks of God volumes sit tantalisingly on my shelves, from where they've tempted and taunted me - occasionally dipped into but never fully absorbed - for nigh on 20 years. I wonder whether old Joe ever found a myth about procrastination?
Maybe Proust should wait a while, after all...
Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions - Albert Einstein
You see things and say, "why?" but I dream things that never were and say, "why not?" George Bernard Shaw
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect - Mark Twain
When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge - Albert Einstein
When all is certain and understood, there is little need for imagination. When all is doubt and uncertainty, the imagination becomes a key survival tool. Without imagination it is impossible to consider and think about the unknown. Without imagination, there can be no living stories, only dead information. Innovation is the product of imagination and so is adaptation - from Knowing to Imagining, Jan Wyllie, 2000
What is now proved was once only imagined - William Blake