Everything that deceives does so by casting a spell.

There are times when reality becomes too complex for oral communication. But legend gives it a form by which it pervades the whole world.

To ensure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough; a police force is needed as well.

Men willingly believe what they wish.

All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.

Any serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.

Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs.

There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.

The believer in magic and miracles reflects on how to impose a law on nature—and, in brief, the religious cult is the outcome of this reflection.

Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe.

One thing alone not even God can do: to make undone whatever has been done.

Egypt was the mother of magicians.

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.