All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
—Plotinus, c. 255Quotes
The mind is led on, step by step, to defeat its own logic.
—Dai Vernon, 1994Men willingly believe what they wish.
—Julius Caesar, c. 50 BCMan is always a wizard to man, and the social world is at first magical.
—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1939A miracle entails a degree of irrationality—not because it shocks reason, but because it makes no appeal to it.
—Emmanuel Lévinas, 1952Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear.
—William Shakespeare, 1592Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one’s bath like a lump of sugar.
—Pablo Picasso, 1929Have you ever, looking up, seen a cloud like to a centaur, a leopard, a wolf, or a bull?
—Aristophanes, 423 BCTo ensure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough; a police force is needed as well.
—Albert Camus, 1951The fact is certain because it is impossible.
—Tertullian, c. 200Watch 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, 1990Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.
—Tom Robbins, 1976There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689