Baudelaire writes: In certain almost supernatural inner states, the depth of life is entirely revealed in the spectacle, however ordinary, that we have before our eyes, and which becomes the symbol of it." Here we have a passage that designates the phenomenological direction I myself pursue. The exterior spectacle helps intimate grandeur unfold.
Gaston BachelardReverie is not a mind vacuum. It is rather the gift of an hour which knows the plenitude of the soul.
Gaston BachelardBy listening to certain words as a child listens to the sea in a seashell, a word dreamer hears the murmur of a world of dreams.
Gaston BachelardHow is it possible not to feel that there is communication between our solitude as a dreamer and the solitudes of childhood? And it is no accident that, in a tranquil reverie, we often follow the slope which returns us to our childhood solitudes.
Gaston BachelardAll knowledge is in response to a question. If there were no question, there would be no scientific knowledge. Nothing proceeds from itself.
Gaston BachelardHere is Menard's own intimate forest: 'Now I am traversed by bridle paths, under the seal of sun and shade...I live in great density...Shelter lures me. I slump down into the thick foliage...In the forest, I am my entire self. Everything is possible in my heart just as it is in the hiding places in ravines. Thickly wooded distance separates me from moral codes and cities.
Gaston Bachelard