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The dream remains overloaded with the badly lived passions of daytime life. Solitude in the nocturnal dream is always a hostility. It is strange. It isn't really our solitude.
Gaston Bachelard
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects on the conflicts between our waking passions and our dreams, suggesting that solitude during dreams can feel hostile.

Gaston Bachelard contemplates the nature of dreams and solitude, asserting that our dreams often carry the weight of our unfulfilled desires and troubling experiences from waking life. He posits that the solitude we experience in dreams may not be genuine, as it is tainted by the emotional burdens of daily life, leading to a sense of inner conflict and hostility rather than peace.

Themes

DreamsSolitudePassionLifeHostility

In practice

Example use cases

In a lecture on psychology, to explain the impact of daily life on our dreams.

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How 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.
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Quote by Gaston Bachelard | QuoteProject