Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.
—Robertson Davies, 1985Quotes
A miracle entails a degree of irrationality—not because it shocks reason, but because it makes no appeal to it.
—Emmanuel Lévinas, 1952Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe.
—Demosthenes, 349 BCAll things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
—Plotinus, c. 255Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs.
—Marlene Dietrich, 1962Everything that deceives does so by casting a spell.
—Plato, c. 375 BCHave you ever, looking up, seen a cloud like to a centaur, a leopard, a wolf, or a bull?
—Aristophanes, 423 BCThe most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science.
—Albert Einstein, 1930The mind is led on, step by step, to defeat its own logic.
—Dai Vernon, 1994Once something becomes discernible, or understandable, we no longer need to repeat it. We can destroy it.
—Robert Wilson, 1991There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689To ensure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough; a police force is needed as well.
—Albert Camus, 1951God is alive. Magic is afoot.
—Leonard Cohen, 1966