I have always admired Samuel Langhorne Clemens, or Mark Twain, as he came to be known in his later years. He was a man of great wisdom, though I'm sure he wouldn't have agreed. He was the kind of man I should aspire to be in my future years, with no tolerance for stupidity but plenty for fun, an understanding of the nature of men but a sort of proud ignorance of certain other things. His writings were—are—superbly done and finely crafted, and his maxims speak of a man who had no false modesty and yet no unearned pride.
So I thought to dig up a few interesting quotations from him on the subject of dreams, for your reading pleasure. It isn't much, but I enjoyed his perspective on this favorite pastime of mine. I hope you enjoy these few quotations as well.
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"In our dreams - I know it! -- we do make the journeys we seem to make: we do see the things we seem to see; the people, the homes, the cats, the dogs, the birds, the whales, are real, not chimeras; they are living spirits, not shadows; and they are immortal and indestructible. They go whither they will; they visit all resorts, all points of interest, even the twinkling suns that wander in the wastes of space. That is where those strange mountains are which slide from under our feet while we walk, and where those vast caverns are whose bewildering avenues close behind us and in front when we are lost, and shut us in. We know this because there are no such things here, and they must be there, because there is no other place."
- Mark Twain in "My Platonic Sweetheart"
"...my dream-artist can draw anything, and do it perfectly; he can paint with all the color and all the shades, and do it with delicacy and truth; he can place before me vivid images of palaces, cities, hamlets, hovels, mountains, valleys, lakes, skies, glowing in sunlight or moonlight, or veiled in driving gusts of snow or rain, and he can set before me people who are intensely alive, and who feel, and express their feelings in their faces, and who also talk and laugh, sing and swear. And when I wake I can shut my eyes and bring back those people, and the scenery and the buildings; and not only in general view, but often in nice detail ..."
- Mark Twain in "My Platonic Sweetheart"
"A dream that comes only once is oftenest only an idle accident, and hasn't any message, but the recurrent dream is quite another matter--oftener than not it has come on business."
- Mark Twain in "Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes"
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If anyone else has any other related quotes or quotations to add, feel free!
