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Reality quotes

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“Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“Can a cube that does not last for any time at all, have a real existence?” H. G. Wells, “The Time Machine” - 1895

“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not. Your mother brings you into the world, carries you first in her body. What do we know about what she feels? But whatever she feels, it, at least, must be real....” James Joyce, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” - 1916

“You'll never be a writer if you hide from reality.” Charles Bukowski, “Ham on Rye” - 1982

“At the root of the Christian life lies belief in the invisible. The object of the Christian's faith is unseen reality.” A. W. Tozer, “The Pursuit of God” - 1948

“He was moving from an unreality that was frightening into a reality that was unreal because it was new.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953

“The science of mathematics treats its object as though it were something abstracted mentally, whereas it is not abstract in reality.” Thomas Aquinas, “Summa Theologica” - 1274

“The desire for imaginary benefits often involves the loss of present blessings.” Aesop, “Aesop's Fables”

“It cannot be maintained that empirical science provides a complete explanation of life, the interplay of all creatures and the whole of reality.” Pope Francis, “Laudato si'” - 24 May 2015

“Men will not look at things as they really are, but as they wish them to be—and are ruined.” Niccolò Machiavelli, “The Prince” - 1532

“The picture is a model of reality.” Ludwig Wittgenstein, “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” - 1921

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” J. K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” - 2007

“Was there anything so real as words?” Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” - 1890

“I love acting. It is so much more real than life.” Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” - 1890

“Faith is believing what you know ain't so.” Mark Twain, “Following the Equator” - 1897

“No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.” Oscar Wilde, “Intentions” - 1891

“If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.” William Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night” - 1623

“He takes false shadows for true substances.” William Shakespeare, “Titus Andronicus” - 1594

“I don't like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work—the chance to find yourself. Your own reality—for yourself, not for others—what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really...” Joseph Conrad, “Heart of Darkness” - 1899

“It's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first...” Joseph Conrad, “Heart of Darkness” - 1899

“I am sorry I can say nothing more consoling to you, for love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” - 1880

“They suffer, of course ... but then they live, they live a real life, not a fantastic one, for suffering is life. Without suffering what would be the pleasure of it?” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” - 1880

“And you'll sit beside me, and we'll look, not at visions, but at realities.” Edith Wharton, “The Age of Innocence” - 1920

“Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table” - 1858

“Properly speaking, the unconscious is the real psychic ; its inner nature is just as unknown to us as the reality of the external world, and it is just as imperfectly reported to us through the data of consciousness as is the external world...” Sigmund Freud, “The Interpretation of Dreams” - 1899

“I don't know, I feel like this isn't the real world. The people, the scene: they just don't seem real to me.” Haruki Murakami, “Norwegian Wood” - 1987

“Cloquet hated reality but realized it was still the only place to get a good steak.” Woody Allen, “Side Effects” - 1980

“After you've been to fight club, watching football on television is watching pornography when you could be having great sex.” Chuck Palahniuk, “Fight Club” - 1996

“Mostly you are what they think you are.” Neil Gaiman, “American Gods” - 2001

“They are actors playing parts that are real only for us; they are the masks behind which we see our own faces.” Neil Gaiman, “American Gods” - 2001

“In the future I'm going to devote less time to sentimentality and more time to reality.” Anne Frank, “The Diary of a Young Girl” - 1947

“It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality.” Anne Frank, “The Diary of a Young Girl” - 1947

“When into the womb of time everything is again withdrawn chaos will be restored and chaos is the score upon which reality is written.” Henry Miller, “Tropic of Cancer” - 1934

“In Washington the appearance of power is therefore almost as important as the reality of it; in fact, the appearance is frequently its essential reality.” Henry Kissinger, “The White House Years” - 1979

“Nights were so real that days began to seem dreamlike to him.” Orson Scott Card, “Ender's Game” - 1985

“Fantasy love is much better than reality love. Never doing it is very exciting. The most exciting attractions are between two opposites that never meet.” Andy Warhol, “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol” - 1975

“Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there—I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life.” Andy Warhol, “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol” - 1975

“People sometimes say that the way things happen in the movies is unreal, but actually it's the way things happen to you in life that's unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it's...” Andy Warhol, “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol” - 1975

“The whole series of my life appeared to me as a dream; I sometimes doubted if indeed it were all true, for it never presented itself to my mind with the force of reality.” Mary Shelley, “Frankenstein” - 1818

“The time has come to pay renewed attention to reality and the limits it imposes; this in turn is the condition for a more sound and fruitful development of individuals and society.” Pope Francis, “Laudato si'” - 24 May 2015

“Artists can have greater access to reality; they can see patterns and details and connections that other people, distracted by the blur of life, might miss. Just sharing that truth can be a very powerful thing.” Jay-Z, “Decoded” - 2010

“Not only that, my style was too erratic and hard to pigeonhole for the radio, and songs, to me, were more important than just light entertainment. They were my preceptor and guide into some altered consciousness of reality, some different...” Bob Dylan, “Chronicles, Volume One” - 2004

“I knew nothing but shadows, and I thought them real.” Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” - 1890

“He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize.” Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” - 1890

“If one doesn't talk about a thing, it has never happened. It is simply expression . . . that gives reality to things.” Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” - 1890

Related topics

life imagination love dream mind pleasure writing shadow consciousness attraction women food appearance truth hiding self-knowledge fear emotions time sentimentality

Related authors

Oscar Wilde (6)
Andy Warhol (3)
William Shakespeare (2)
Joseph Conrad (2)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (2)
Neil Gaiman (2)
Anne Frank (2)
Pope Francis (2)
James Joyce (1)
Mark Twain (1)
J. K. Rowling (1)
George Orwell (1)
H. G. Wells (1)
Edith Wharton (1)
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1)
Sigmund Freud (1)
Charles Bukowski (1)
A. W. Tozer (1)
Carl Sagan (1)
Haruki Murakami (1)

Related sources

The Picture of Dorian Gray (5)
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (3)
Heart of Darkness (2)
The Brothers Karamazov (2)
American Gods (2)
The Diary of a Young Girl (2)
Laudato si' (2)
Twelfth Night (1)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1)
Titus Andronicus (1)
1984 (1)
The Time Machine (1)
The Age of Innocence (1)
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1)
The Interpretation of Dreams (1)
Ham on Rye (1)
The Pursuit of God (1)
Cosmos (1)
Norwegian Wood (1)
Side Effects (1)