Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
—Saint Augustine, c. 400Quotes
There are times when reality becomes too complex for oral communication. But legend gives it a form by which it pervades the whole world.
—Jean-Luc Godard, 1965The 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. 1400Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.
—Lucretius, c. 58 BCCurses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost.
—Robert Southey, 1809There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689The mind is led on, step by step, to defeat its own logic.
—Dai Vernon, 1994Egypt was the mother of magicians.
—Clement of Alexandria, c. 200Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe.
—Demosthenes, 349 BCEverything that deceives does so by casting a spell.
—Plato, c. 375 BCOn 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.
—Edward Bellamy, 1888The 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.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1878Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs.
—Marlene Dietrich, 1962