If an essay has a 'motive,' it is linked more to happenstance and opportunity than to the driven will. A genuine essay is not a doctrinaire tract or a propaganda effort or a broadside.
Cynthia OzickRead
In every man there is a hidden child which is called the urge to create and he prefers as play things and serious things not the miniature ships, recreated in the minutest detail, but the walnutshell with a bird feather as mast and sail and a pebble as the captain. He also wants to be able to participate and to co-create in art, rather than being simply an admiring viewer. For this "child in man" is the immortal creator within him.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the intrinsic creative spirit within every person, likening it to the curiosity and imagination of a child.
Christian Morgenstern's quote reflects the idea that within every adult lies a childlike urge to create and participate in the world around them. This 'hidden child' delights not in perfect replicas, but in simple, imaginative play that signifies deeper artistic expression. It suggests that the essence of creativity is not just formal or technical, but is anchored in playfulness and discovery—qualities that invite individuals to actively engage with art rather than remain passive observers.
Themes
CreativityChildhoodImaginationArtParticipation
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about fostering creativity in schools, this quote can illustrate the importance of encouraging imaginative play in students.
Similar quotes
Poetry is for me Eucharistic. You take someone else's suffering into your body, their passion comes into your body, and in doing that you commune, you take communion, you make a community with others.
Mary KarrRead
I'm not interested in seeing a film just made by a woman - not unless she is looking for new images.
Agnes VardaRead
The worst time in any writer's life is the two months before publication. ALL writers become mental and pathetic, even those of devout faith, who have some psychological healing to lean up against, and gorgeous lives. All writers think that this time, the jig is up, and they will be exposed as frauds.
Anne LamottRead
My brain hums with scraps of poetry and madness.
Virginia WoolfRead
Fashion is everything that can pass fashionable
Coco ChanelRead