In the past, men created witches; now they create mental patients.
—Thomas Szasz, 1970Quotes
A miracle entails a degree of irrationality—not because it shocks reason, but because it makes no appeal to it.
—Emmanuel Lévinas, 1952On no other stage are the scenes shifted with a swiftness so like magic as on the great stage of history when once the hour strikes.
—Edward Bellamy, 1888Everything that deceives does so by casting a spell.
—Plato, c. 375 BCMen willingly believe what they wish.
—Julius Caesar, c. 50 BCEverything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one’s bath like a lump of sugar.
—Pablo Picasso, 1929God is alive. Magic is afoot.
—Leonard Cohen, 1966The 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, 1878To 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 BCAppearances often are deceiving.
—Aesop, c. 550 BCAll things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
—Plotinus, c. 255In 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, 1967The fact is certain because it is impossible.
—Tertullian, c. 200