Egypt was the mother of magicians.
—Clement of Alexandria, c. 200Quotes
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 BCWatch 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, 1990Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one’s bath like a lump of sugar.
—Pablo Picasso, 1929Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.
—Robertson Davies, 1985The mind is led on, step by step, to defeat its own logic.
—Dai Vernon, 1994I shall curse you with book and bell and candle.
—Thomas Malory, c. 1470Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
—Saint Augustine, c. 400Any serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.
—Derek Walcott, 1986The believer in magic and miracles reflects on how to impose a law on nature—and, in brief, the religious cult is the outcome of this reflection.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1878The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth.
—Gaston Bachelard, 1960Appearances often are deceiving.
—Aesop, c. 550 BCTo ensure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough; a police force is needed as well.
—Albert Camus, 1951