Archive

Quotes

To 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 BC

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

—Plotinus, c. 255

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

—Aristotle, c. 350 BC

I shall curse you with book and bell and candle.

—Thomas Malory, c. 1470

Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.

—Robertson Davies, 1985

Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear.

—William Shakespeare, 1592

God is alive. Magic is afoot.

—Leonard Cohen, 1966

In the past, men created witches; now they create mental patients.

—Thomas Szasz, 1970

A miracle entails a degree of irrationality—not because it shocks reason, but because it makes no appeal to it.

—Emmanuel Lévinas, 1952

On 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

The Mughal’s nature is such that they demand miracles, but if a miracle were to be performed by some upright follower of our religion, they would say that it had been brought about by magic and sorcery. They would strike him down with spears or would stone him to death.

—Fr. Antonio Monserrate, 1590

Egypt was the mother of magicians.

—Clement of Alexandria, c. 200

Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.

—Tom Robbins, 1976