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

Appearances often are deceiving.

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.

Many are the wonders of the world, and none so wonderful as man.

I shall curse you with book and bell and candle.

Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost.

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

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.

The fact is certain because it is impossible.

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

Have you ever, looking up, seen a cloud like to a centaur, a leopard, a wolf, or a bull?

A miracle entails a degree of irrationality—not because it shocks reason, but because it makes no appeal to it.

To blow and to swallow at the same time is not easy; I cannot at the same time be here and also there.