“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world.”
Albert Einstein
KnowledgeCreativity
Imagination Quotes
90 FAMOUS QUOTES · IMAGINATION
Imagination Quotes
Read 90 of the best imagination quotes from Albert Einstein, William Blake, Pablo Picasso, Carl Sagan, Rabindranath Tagore and Kabir, plus quotes on creativity, stories and children's wonder.
“Imagination rules the world.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
PowerShort Quotes
“Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice and happiness, which are everything in this world.”
Blaise Pascal
BeautyHappiness
“Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.”
William Blake
VisionPoetry
“Imagination is but another name for absolute power and clearest insight, amplitude of mind, and reason in her most exalted mood.”
William Wordsworth
InsightMind
“The great instrument of moral good is the imagination.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley
EmpathyGoodness
“The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment.”
John Keats
YouthGrowing Up
“Science does not know its debt to imagination.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
ScienceDiscovery
“Imagination is not a talent of some men but is the health of every man.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
CreativityWellbeing
“Imagination is the queen of the faculties.”
Charles Baudelaire
MindShort Quotes
“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
PossibilityDreams
“Nothing is more free than the imagination of man.”
David Hume
FreedomMind
“Imagination is a necessary ingredient of perception itself.”
Immanuel Kant
PerceptionPhilosophy
“The soul never thinks without a mental image.”
Aristotle
MindPhilosophy
“A strong imagination begetteth chance.”
Michel de Montaigne
OpportunityMindset
“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
CreationGoals
“Imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.”
Oscar Wilde
CreativityWit
“Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do.”
G. K. Chesterton
CreativityFunny
“Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason.”
G. K. Chesterton
ReasonParadox
“Imagination is the eye of the soul.”
Joseph Joubert
SoulShort Quotes
“The imagination is that faculty which gives form to thought.”
George MacDonald
IdeasCreativity
“I write, not for children, but for the childlike, whether of five, or fifty, or seventy-five.”
George MacDonald
Childlike WonderWriting
“Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recovered at will.”
Charles Baudelaire
GeniusChildhood
“Man only plays when he is in the fullest sense of the word a human being, and he is only fully a human being when he plays.”
Friedrich Schiller
PlayHumanity
“Keep true to the dreams of thy youth.”
Friedrich Schiller
DreamsYouth
Related Topics
About Imagination Quotes
Every invention, story, painting and great idea began in someone's imagination. Imagination lets us picture what doesn't exist yet, see the world through someone else's eyes and find new answers to old problems. Children are naturally full of it, and the wisest adults spend their lives trying to keep it alive.
This collection brings together 90 of the best imagination quotes. It starts with classic words from Albert Einstein, William Blake, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Baudelaire, Rabindranath Tagore, Kabir and the Natya Shastra, continues with quotes from Pablo Picasso, Carl Sagan, Maya Angelou and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and ends with original WebFunFacts quotes on creativity, children, books, art, science and dreams. For more, explore our [Art Quotes](/topics/art-quotes) and [Dreams Quotes](/topics/dreams-quotes).
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers about Imagination quotes.
What is the most famous quote about imagination?
Albert Einstein's "Imagination is more important than knowledge" is the best known. Napoleon's "Imagination rules the world" is another classic.
What did Picasso say about children and art?
Pablo Picasso said, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." It's a reminder to protect the creativity we're all born with.
What did Kabir say about searching outside ourselves?
Kabir compared people to a musk deer that roams the forest searching for a scent that's actually in its own navel. What we seek is often already within us.
Is "Tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever" a Native American proverb?
It's often called one, but its true origin is uncertain, and it may be a modern saying. We've labelled it that way to be accurate.
What is a good imagination quote for students?
Try Einstein's line about knowledge being limited while imagination embraces the world, or "Mathematics is imagination with very strict rules, and that's what makes it beautiful."
What is a good short imagination quote?
Try Picasso's "Everything you can imagine is real," Joubert's "Imagination is the eye of the soul," or Baudelaire's "Imagination is the queen of the faculties."