Notice how many of them are conditional
Read the room in order and a pattern emerges: almost every line has an “if” in it, stated or buried. If you have the courage. Unless you do. It takes sweat. Even Roosevelt’s, the most quoted of them, is really about which people the future belongs to, not about dreaming as such. The genre gets accused of selling comfort, but the actual sentences are mostly warnings dressed as encouragement.
Twenty-three lines, four findings, and a word doing two jobs
The largest room in this world, running from Thoreau in 1854 to 2004, and its central word is unstable throughout. Half these lines use dream to mean an ambition you are pursuing. The other half use it to mean a vision you have not acted on, which is nearly the opposite. Thoreau's line means the first. A good deal of what gets quoted alongside it means the second, and the four findings here are mostly lines that slid from one sense to the other while changing owners.
What is a good short quote about following your dreams?
Thoreau’s “go confidently in the direction of your dreams”, from Walden in 1854, is the most quotable and the best sourced. Maxwell’s “dreams don’t work unless you do” is shorter and sharper if you want the version with a warning in it.
Who said “dream big and dare to fail”?
Norman Vaughan, the polar explorer who joined Byrd’s Antarctic expedition at 22 and climbed the 3,140-metre mountain named for him three days before his 89th birthday.
Did Eleanor Roosevelt say “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”?
Checked against Quote Investigator during the audit: Ralph Keyes, Fred R. Shapiro and Barry Popik have all failed to find any substantive link to Eleanor Roosevelt, who died in 1962. It is one of the most confidently misattributed lines in circulation. It is filed here as attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, which means widely credited and not traced to a primary source.
Did Henry David Thoreau say “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; now put…”?
Thoreau put a clause in the middle that usually gets dropped: “… your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” Without it the sentence loses his joke. The collection cites it to Walden, 1854 — ch. 18.
Did Jonathan Swift say “Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.”?
As published the line reads: “Vision is the Art of seeing Things invisible.” The version in circulation, and the one shown here, has drifted from it. It is filed here as attributed to Jonathan Swift, which means widely credited and not traced to a primary source.
Did C. S. Lewis say “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”?
Commonly credited to C. S. Lewis and never with a primary source. Also attributed to the motivational speaker Les Brown. It is filed here as attributed to C. S. Lewis, which means widely credited and not traced to a primary source.