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

Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.

The fact is certain because it is impossible.

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.

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

Any serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.

God is alive. Magic is afoot.

The mind is led on, step by step, to defeat its own logic.

The 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.

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

In the past, men created witches; now they create mental patients.

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

Nothing worth knowing can be understood with the mind.