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Quotes

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

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 BC

Once something becomes discernible, or understandable, we no longer need to repeat it. We can destroy it.

—Robert Wilson, 1991

Appearances often are deceiving.

—Aesop, c. 550 BC

Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.

—Lucretius, c. 58 BC

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

—Aristotle, c. 350 BC

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

Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs.

—Marlene Dietrich, 1962

The 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

Nothing worth knowing can be understood with the mind.

—Woody Allen, 1979

Everything that deceives does so by casting a spell.

—Plato, c. 375 BC

A miracle entails a degree of irrationality—not because it shocks reason, but because it makes no appeal to it.

—Emmanuel Lévinas, 1952

The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science.

—Albert Einstein, 1930