A miracle entails a degree of irrationality—not because it shocks reason, but because it makes no appeal to it.
—Emmanuel Lévinas, 1952Quotes
Appearances often are deceiving.
—Aesop, c. 550 BCMan is always a wizard to man, and the social world is at first magical.
—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1939Nothing worth knowing can be understood with the mind.
—Woody Allen, 1979Many are the wonders of the world, and none so wonderful as man.
—Sophocles, c. 441 BCOn no other stage are the scenes shifted with a swiftness so like magic as on the great stage of history when once the hour strikes.
—Edward Bellamy, 1888Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.
—Roald Dahl, 1990Egypt was the mother of magicians.
—Clement of Alexandria, c. 200Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost.
—Robert Southey, 1809Everything that deceives does so by casting a spell.
—Plato, c. 375 BCEverything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one’s bath like a lump of sugar.
—Pablo Picasso, 1929One thing alone not even God can do: to make undone whatever has been done.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCDisbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.
—Tom Robbins, 1976