Many are the wonders of the world, and none so wonderful as man.
—Sophocles, c. 441 BCQuotes
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, 1590Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear.
—William Shakespeare, 1592Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe.
—Demosthenes, 349 BCAny serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.
—Derek Walcott, 1986In the past, men created witches; now they create mental patients.
—Thomas Szasz, 1970There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689Men willingly believe what they wish.
—Julius Caesar, c. 50 BCThe more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.
—Italo Calvino, 1967There 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, 1965Man is always a wizard to man, and the social world is at first magical.
—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1939The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth.
—Gaston Bachelard, 1960In the society of men, the truth resides now less in what things are than in what they are not. Our social realities are so ugly if seen in the light of exiled truth, and beauty is almost no longer possible if it is not a lie.
—R.D. Laing, 1967