CHIMERA

an illusion

originally an imaginary fire-breather she-monster

/a grotesque product of the imagination

//an illusion or fabrication of the mind; especially: an unrealizable dream

"a fancy, a chimera in my brain, troubles me in my prayer" - John Donne

"He realized at once that his hope to fly was only a chimera that he had unknowingly welcomed to ignore the harshness and banality of his life."

"Now he realized that the woman was not the monstrous chimera his mind had created in anticipation."

"HE was a blessed boy, having an incredible imagination, but this was also his weakest point, for in the real world his monster was only regarded as a chimera."