"Words … are little houses, each with its cellar and garret. Common sense lives on the ground floor, always ready to engage in ‘foreign commerce’ on the same level as the others, as the passers-by, who are never dreamers. To go upstairs in the word house is to withdraw step by step; while to go down to the cellar is to dream, it is losing oneself in the distant corridors of an obscure etymology, looking for treasures that cannot be found in words. To mount and descend in the words themselves—this is a poet’s life. To mount too high or descend too low is allowed in the case of poets, who bring earth and sky together."
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Academics from FranceLiterary criticsPhilosophers from FrancePoets from FranceSociologists from France
Original Language: English
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Ch. 6
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gaston_Bachelard
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Gaston Bachelard
Gaston Bachelard (June 27, 1884 – October 16, 1962) was a French philosopher of science and literary critic.
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