A short YouTube episode by Brian Johnson reflecting on inspirational quotes about dreams and success from Langston Hughes, James Allen, and Henry David Thoreau. The speaker emphasizes advancing confidently toward one’s dreams, building practical foundations under lofty goals, and paying the price required to realize them.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. In our last plus one, we spent some time with Langston Hughes and James Allen. As you may recall, Hughes told us, hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams, for when dreams go, life is a barren field frozen with snow. Love it. James Allen told us, cherish your visions, cherish your ideals, cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment. Of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built. Now, as I captured those inspiring words, I thought of another poetically wise passage, this one from Henry David Thoreau. He told us, I have learned this at least by my experiment, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind will pass an invisible boundary. New universal and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him, or the old laws be expanded and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. And by the way, Thoreau also told us, if you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. That is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. In other words, whoop those goals, rub them up against reality, know the price you'll have to pay and go pay it today.
