Archive

Quotes

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

—Tom Robbins, 1976

There 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, 1960

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

—Jean-Luc Godard, 1965

Any serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.

—Derek Walcott, 1986

Egypt was the mother of magicians.

—Clement of Alexandria, c. 200

The fact is certain because it is impossible.

—Tertullian, c. 200

Have you ever, looking up, seen a cloud like to a centaur, a leopard, a wolf, or a bull?

—Aristophanes, 423 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

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

—Thomas Szasz, 1970

Appearances often are deceiving.

—Aesop, c. 550 BC

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

—Saint Augustine, c. 400

Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear.

—William Shakespeare, 1592