List of Gaston Bachelard Quotes

Irony Gives Us, At Little Expense, The Impression That We Are Experienced Psychologists.

Thanks To His Complex Convictions, Made Strong With The Forces Of Animus And Anima, The Alchemist Believes He Is Seizing The Soul Of The World, Participating In The Soul Of The World. Thus, From The World To The Man, Alchemy Is A Problem Of Souls.

The Poetic Image Is A Sudden Salience On The Surface Of The Psyche

The Poetic Image Exists Apart From Causality.

I Am Alone So I Dream Of The Being Who Has Cured My Solitude, Who Would Be Cured By Solitudes. With Its Life, It Brought Me The Idealizations Of Life, All The Idealizations Which Give Life A Double, Which Lead Life Toward It Summits, Which Make The Dreamer Too Live By Splitting.

In Scientific Thought, The Concept Functions All The Better For Being Cut Off From All Background Images. In Its Full Exercise, The Scientific Concept Is Free From All The Delays Of Its Genetic Evolution, An Evolution Which Is Consequently Explained By Simple Psychology. The Virility Of Knowledge Increases With Each Conquest Of The Constructive Abstraction.

In Living Off All The Reflecting Light Furnished By Poets, The I Which Dreams The Reverie Reveals Itself Not As Poet But As Poetizing I.

In Our Life As A Civilized Person In The Industrial Age, We Are Invaded By Objects; How Could An Object Have A "force" When It No Longer Has Individuality?

It Is A Poor Reverie Which Invites A Nap. One Must Even Wonder Whether, In This "failing Asleep", The Subconscious Itself Does Not Undergo A Decline In Being.

What Action Could Bodies And Substances Have If They Were Not Named In A Further Increase Of Dignity Where Common Nouns Become Proper Nouns?

The Psychology Of The Alchemist Is That Of Reveries Trying To Constitute Themselves In Experiments On The Exterior World. A Double Vocabulary Must Be Established Between Reverie And Experiment. The Exaltation Of The Names Of Substances Is The Preamble To Experiments On The "exalted" Substances.

The Repose Of Sleep Refreshes Only The Body. It Rarely Sets The Soul At Rest.