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

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

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

The fact is certain because it is impossible.

There are times when reality becomes too complex for oral communication. But legend gives it a form by which it pervades the whole world.

The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth.

Man is always a wizard to man, and the social world is at first magical.

Any serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.

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 from nothing ever yet was born.

There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.

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

Men willingly believe what they wish.