To blow and to swallow at the same time is not easy; I cannot at the same time be here and also there.
—Plautus, c. 200 BCQuotes
Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe.
—Demosthenes, 349 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, 1888Men willingly believe what they wish.
—Julius Caesar, c. 50 BCAppearances often are deceiving.
—Aesop, c. 550 BCThe more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.
—Italo Calvino, 1967Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.
—Tom Robbins, 1976Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.
—Lucretius, c. 58 BCThe 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. 1400One thing alone not even God can do: to make undone whatever has been done.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCThere is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689Man is always a wizard to man, and the social world is at first magical.
—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1939Nothing worth knowing can be understood with the mind.
—Woody Allen, 1979