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Quotes

Appearances often are deceiving.

—Aesop, c. 550 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

The fact is certain because it is impossible.

—Tertullian, c. 200

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

—Saint Augustine, c. 400

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

—Aristotle, c. 350 BC

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

—Demosthenes, 349 BC

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

—Albert Camus, 1951

There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to see what is reaching toward him and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. Man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange.

—Elias Canetti, 1960

Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.

—Robertson Davies, 1985

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

—Sophocles, c. 441 BC

Men willingly believe what they wish.

—Julius Caesar, c. 50 BC

Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.

—Tom Robbins, 1976