without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable. It is therefore short-sighted to treat fantasy, on account of its risky or unacceptable nature, as a thing of little worth." - Meaning and context.">
Ch. 1, p. 82

The dynamic principle of fantasy is play, a characteristic also of the child, and as such it appears inconsistent with the principle of serious work. But without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable. It is therefore short-sighted to treat fantasy, on account of its risky or unacceptable nature, as a thing of little worth.

— Carl Jung

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The dynamic principle of fantasy is play, a characteristic also of the child, and as such it appears inconsistent with the principle of serious work. But without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable. It is therefore short-sighted to treat fantasy, on account of its risky or unacceptable nature, as a thing of little worth." in the context of "Ch. 1, p. 82" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Carl Jung" (Quotes, Psychological Types, or, The Psychology of Individuation (1921)) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Carl Jung

About Carl Jung

Carl Gustav Jung (IPA: ˈkarl ˈgʊstaf ˈjʊŋ) (26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology.