Quote #12

“Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.”
- Charles William Dement

 

This quote goes along well with the last quote. In fact, if you combine the two, I’d say that you could consider me quietly and safely insane most of the time.

Interestingly, in my original list of quotes, I had the source of this one listed as “Fisher, in Newsweek.” I wonder if that is who originally quoted Dement in a publication. Either way, it’s a good quote.

The truth is, we often have very strange dreams, even our daydreams can be a little odd. That’s ok. There’s nothing wrong with entertaining a little insanity in our dreams. The idea is to keep the insanity in the world of dreams.

I personally enjoy my dreams very much and cherish my insanity.

Quote #11

 

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”
- Edgar Allan Poe

 

You know, I’m glad somebody said it. The fact is, I dream a lot during the day. In fact, I often enjoy my daydreams more than I enjoy my nighttime dreams, and I’d say only about a fifth of my dreams happen at night.

I’m not saying that I spend most of my waking hours gazing off into space daydreaming. What I’m saying is that I love daydreaming and I feel that it actually enhances my person, my creativity and my logical abilities. Daydreaming is closely tied to imagination and creativity. In fact, right now as I try to write this I am daydreaming.

Cognizant isn’t seen very often in our contemporary vocabulary, but by analyzing the roots we can easily see that it has to do with awareness and thought. Many definitions equate it directly to being aware of something, but I like to think that the Mr. Poe intends the use to be read a little deeper than that.

Think of the words cognition, recognize and cognitive powers (like the cognitive powers of Sherlock Holmes, one of my heroes). These could all be related to awareness, but they are used in conjunction with thought and analytical ability. In my mind, the quote means: “Those who dream by day are thinking about, analyzing and aware of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” Cognizant simply condenses all of those ideas into one word.

I, for one, am a proud daydreamer and I truly feel that daydreaming is a positive, beneficial habit. What do you think about daydreaming? Is it healthy? Does it contribute positively to a person?