The fact is certain because it is impossible.
—Tertullian, c. 200Quotes
One thing alone not even God can do: to make undone whatever has been done.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCAll things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
—Plotinus, c. 255The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.
—Italo Calvino, 1967Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe.
—Demosthenes, 349 BCThe 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, 1590Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.
—Tom Robbins, 1976Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.
—Lucretius, c. 58 BCCurses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost.
—Robert Southey, 1809There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to see what is reaching toward him and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. Man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange.
—Elias Canetti, 1960The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science.
—Albert Einstein, 1930Man 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, 1979