There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689Quotes
Many are the wonders of the world, and none so wonderful as man.
—Sophocles, c. 441 BCCurses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost.
—Robert Southey, 1809Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
—Saint Augustine, c. 400I shall curse you with book and bell and candle.
—Thomas Malory, c. 1470The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth.
—Gaston Bachelard, 1960Appearances often are deceiving.
—Aesop, c. 550 BCNothing worth knowing can be understood with the mind.
—Woody Allen, 1979Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe.
—Demosthenes, 349 BCAny serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.
—Derek Walcott, 1986There 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.
—Elias Canetti, 1960God is alive. Magic is afoot.
—Leonard Cohen, 1966A miracle entails a degree of irrationality—not because it shocks reason, but because it makes no appeal to it.
—Emmanuel Lévinas, 1952