All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
—Plotinus, c. 255Quotes
Any serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.
—Derek Walcott, 1986To blow and to swallow at the same time is not easy; I cannot at the same time be here and also there.
—Plautus, c. 200 BCThe more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.
—Italo Calvino, 1967The mind is led on, step by step, to defeat its own logic.
—Dai Vernon, 1994Egypt was the mother of magicians.
—Clement of Alexandria, c. 200In the past, men created witches; now they create mental patients.
—Thomas Szasz, 1970Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
—Saint Augustine, c. 400Many are the wonders of the world, and none so wonderful as man.
—Sophocles, c. 441 BCThere is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth.
—Gaston Bachelard, 1960Watch 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, 1990On 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, 1888