You gotta have a dream. If you don't have a dream, how you gonna

“You gotta have a dream. If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna make a dream come true?” — so wrote Oscar Hammerstein II, the poet of the American stage, whose songs stirred the hearts of millions and gave voice to the secret hopes of ordinary souls. These words, simple yet profound, were born not from philosophy’s lofty towers but from the living rhythm of human longing. They come from his song Happy Talk, in the musical South Pacific (1949), yet behind their melody lies the eternal wisdom of the ancients: that vision precedes creation, that dreams are the seed of destiny.

The origin of this saying is deeply tied to Hammerstein’s own art and spirit. In an age weary from war and division, he wrote of love, hope, and the courage to believe in something better. His words carried the power of sunlight breaking through storm clouds — not because they denied the darkness, but because they declared that within man lies the power to imagine light. When he said, “You gotta have a dream,” he was not offering mere sentiment. He was proclaiming a law of the soul: that before any great act, before any triumph, there must first be a dream — a vision so vivid that it draws the unseen into being.

To dream is the first act of creation. The farmer who sows a field dreams of harvest; the builder dreams of the house before he lifts the first stone. Every invention, every masterpiece, every act of courage begins as a whisper within the heart. Without a dream, life drifts like a ship without a compass — it moves, but it goes nowhere. Hammerstein’s wisdom reminds us that to live without dreams is not safety, but slow decay. The dream is the flame of purpose, the voice of the soul calling us toward what we might become.

Think of Martin Luther King Jr., whose immortal words — “I have a dream” — echoed across a nation and changed the course of history. He did not begin with armies or wealth or political power; he began with a vision, a dream of justice and brotherhood. From that dream came action, from that action came transformation. Like Hammerstein’s lyric, King’s dream was not fantasy but prophecy — the shaping of tomorrow through the faith of today. For only those who dare to dream give birth to realities the world has not yet seen.

And yet, Hammerstein’s quote carries not only hope but challenge. To have a dream is easy; to make it come true demands courage, patience, and labor. The dreamer must rise at dawn, bear disappointment, and persist through seasons of doubt. Many abandon their dreams when hardship comes, forgetting that even the brightest dawn is born from night. But Hammerstein’s words call us to faith — not a passive faith, but the active belief that our dreams are worthy of our effort, and that destiny rewards the steadfast heart. Dreams are not gifts; they are callings.

The wisdom of the ancients agrees: in every great life, the dream comes first. Moses dreamed of the Promised Land long before he reached it. Michelangelo saw the statue of David within the marble before he ever struck it. The dreamer is a seer — one who beholds the invisible and dares to make it visible. To dream, therefore, is not childish, as some believe; it is divine. It is to participate in the same creative power that shaped the stars and breathed life into the dust.

So, my listener, take this teaching to heart. Guard your dreams as sacred fire. Feed them with learning, with discipline, with faith. Speak them aloud, write them down, and walk toward them one step each day. Let no cynic steal them from you, for the world belongs to those who imagine it anew. And remember always Hammerstein’s gentle truth: you cannot fulfill what you do not first envision. The future is built by those who dare to dream it.

For in the end, the dream is the bridge between what is and what can be. It is the song of the soul, calling you toward your highest self. “You gotta have a dream,” said the poet — and so you must. For if you do not dream, you will only live by accident; but if you do, and you believe, and you act — then, indeed, you shall make that dream come true.