Everything that deceives does so by casting a spell.

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

On 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.

Any serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.

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

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

Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost.

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.

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

The fact is certain because it is impossible.

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

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.

In 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.