Any serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.

There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.

Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.

To ensure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough; a police force is needed as well.

To blow and to swallow at the same time is not easy; I cannot at the same time be here and also there.

Men willingly believe what they wish.

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.

Nothing worth knowing can be understood with the mind.

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.

The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.

Everything that deceives does so by casting a spell.

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.

Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.