André Breton, "Imagination"

"So strong is the belief in life – in what is most fragile in life, which is to say, the real life – that in the end this belief is lost. Man, that inveterate dreamer, daily more discontent with his destiny, has trouble maintaining perspective on the objects with which he has been led to concern himself...

The imagination which once recognized no bounds is henceforth allowed to be exercised only in strict accordance with the laws of an arbitrary utility; it is incapable of assuming this inferior role for very long and, in the vicinity of the twentieth year, generally prefers to abandon man to his lusterless fate...Beloved imagination, what I most love in you is your refusal to forgive...

It is not the fear of madness which will oblige us to leave the flag of imagination furled.

The case against the realistic attitude demands to be examined, following the case against the materialistic attitude...the realistic attitude, inspired by positivism, from Saint Thomas Aquinas to Anatole France, clearly seems to me to be hostile to any intellectual or moral advancement. I loathe it, for it is made up of mediocrity, hate, and dull conceit...

Let me come back again to the waking state. I have no choice but to consider it a phenomenon of interference...it does not appear that, when the mind is functioning normally, it really responds to anything but the suggestions which come to it from the depths of that dark night to which I commend it...it reveals the degree of its subjectivity, and nothing more.

Let us not mince words: the fantastical is always beautiful, anything fantastical is beautiful, in fact only the fantastical is beautiful."

— André Breton