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Quotes

Many are the wonders of the world, and none so wonderful as man.

—Sophocles, c. 441 BC

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, 1590

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, 1951

Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.

—Robertson Davies, 1985

The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth.

—Gaston Bachelard, 1960

Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear.

—William Shakespeare, 1592

Watch 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, 1990

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

—Thomas Szasz, 1970

The fear of the Lord is true wisdom, and he who hath it not can in no way penetrate the true secrets of magic.

—Abraham the Jew, c. 1400

God is alive. Magic is afoot.

—Leonard Cohen, 1966

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

One thing alone not even God can do: to make undone whatever has been done.

—Aristotle, c. 350 BC

Man is always a wizard to man, and the social world is at first magical.

—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1939