Archive

Quotes

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

—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1939

Appearances often are deceiving.

—Aesop, c. 550 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

Any serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.

—Derek Walcott, 1986

Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear.

—William Shakespeare, 1592

Watch 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, 1990

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

—Saint Augustine, c. 400

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

—Thomas Szasz, 1970

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

—Gaston Bachelard, 1960

Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.

—Robertson Davies, 1985

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

—Aristophanes, 423 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

Nothing worth knowing can be understood with the mind.

—Woody Allen, 1979