Gaston Bachelard

“So, like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always flare up again within us.”

“The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth.”

“Reverie is not a mind vacuum. It is rather the gift of an hour which knows the plenitude of the soul.”

“The characteristic of scientific progress is our knowing that we did not know.”

“If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.”

“The repose of sleep refreshes only the body. It rarely sets the soul at rest. The repose of the night does not belong to us. It is not the possession of our being. Sleep opens within us an inn for phantoms. In the morning we must sweep out the shadows.”