Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe.
—Demosthenes, 349 BCQuotes
Once something becomes discernible, or understandable, we no longer need to repeat it. We can destroy it.
—Robert Wilson, 1991The 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, 1930All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
—Plotinus, c. 255There 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, 1960The Mughal’s nature is such that they demand miracles, but if a miracle were to be performed by some upright follower of our religion, they would say that it had been brought about by magic and sorcery. They would strike him down with spears or would stone him to death.
—Fr. Antonio Monserrate, 1590Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.
—Robertson Davies, 1985Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear.
—William Shakespeare, 1592In 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.
—R.D. Laing, 1967Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.
—Tom Robbins, 1976There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
—Saint Augustine, c. 400Nothing worth knowing can be understood with the mind.
—Woody Allen, 1979