Art Beat: Imagine

In my experience, imagination is a powerful tool that can help you chart the course of your life and will your dreams into reality. It can also be a crippling escape tactic if used too frequently to avoid the everyday troubles of mortal life. It’s a gift as much as it is a burden. I would even venture to say that imagination itself is what came out of Pandora’s Box and once opened, there’s no going back.

Creative people such as painters and musicians of course thrive off imagination, but it’s not limited to artsy types. No, imagination is one of the key elements of the human experience and often credited as one of the core foundations of how we evolved as species.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur envisioning a revolutionary business model or a humble public school teacher coming up with ways to keep your students engaged.

While it’s important to stay grounded in your life, dreams should never have a limit. For better or worse, we use our dreams and our mental musings to keep us going. So, here’s some thought provoking quotes with varying takes on the subject of imagination.

“This world is but a canvas to our imagination.”

– Henry David Thoreau

“Imagination is more important that knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

– Albert Einstein

“The power of imagination created the illusion that my vision went much farther than the naked eye could actually see.”

– Nelson Mandela

“Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king.”

– Mark Van Doren

“The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment.”

– Tony Robbins

The man who has no imagination has no wings.

– Muhammad Ali

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will.”

– George Bernard Shaw

“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere.”

– Carl Sagan

“There are certain half-dreaming moods of mind in which we naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek some quiet haunt where we may indulge our reveries and build our air castles undisturbed.”

– Washington Irving

“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”

– John Lennon

“Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”

– Oscar Wilde