Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear.
—William Shakespeare, 1592Quotes
To ensure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough; a police force is needed as well.
—Albert Camus, 1951The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.
—Italo Calvino, 1967There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689Egypt was the mother of magicians.
—Clement of Alexandria, c. 200The fact is certain because it is impossible.
—Tertullian, c. 200The mind is led on, step by step, to defeat its own logic.
—Dai Vernon, 1994Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
—Saint Augustine, c. 400Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.
—Lucretius, c. 58 BCMan is always a wizard to man, and the social world is at first magical.
—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1939Men willingly believe what they wish.
—Julius Caesar, c. 50 BCHave you ever, looking up, seen a cloud like to a centaur, a leopard, a wolf, or a bull?
—Aristophanes, 423 BCThe 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, 1878