Archive

Quotes

I shall curse you with book and bell and candle.

—Thomas Malory, c. 1470

Everything that deceives does so by casting a spell.

—Plato, c. 375 BC

Have you ever, looking up, seen a cloud like to a centaur, a leopard, a wolf, or a bull?

—Aristophanes, 423 BC

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

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

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

—Saint Augustine, c. 400

All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.

—Plotinus, c. 255

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

—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1939

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

Men willingly believe what they wish.

—Julius Caesar, c. 50 BC

Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe.

—Demosthenes, 349 BC

Any serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.

—Derek Walcott, 1986

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

—Gaston Bachelard, 1960