Archive

Quotes

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

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

—Plotinus, c. 255

Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.

—Roald Dahl, 1990

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.

—Albert Einstein, 1930

Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.

—Lucretius, c. 58 BC

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

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

—Thomas Szasz, 1970

I shall curse you with book and bell and candle.

—Thomas Malory, c. 1470

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.

—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1878

Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.

—Robertson Davies, 1985

Men willingly believe what they wish.

—Julius Caesar, c. 50 BC

One thing alone not even God can do: to make undone whatever has been done.

—Aristotle, c. 350 BC