There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689Quotes
Once something becomes discernible, or understandable, we no longer need to repeat it. We can destroy it.
—Robert Wilson, 1991In the past, men created witches; now they create mental patients.
—Thomas Szasz, 1970Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe.
—Demosthenes, 349 BCMen willingly believe what they wish.
—Julius Caesar, c. 50 BCAny serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.
—Derek Walcott, 1986All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
—Plotinus, c. 255One thing alone not even God can do: to make undone whatever has been done.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCThe mind is led on, step by step, to defeat its own logic.
—Dai Vernon, 1994Nothing worth knowing can be understood with the mind.
—Woody Allen, 1979In the society of men, the truth resides now less in what things are than in what they are not. Our social realities are so ugly if seen in the light of exiled truth, and beauty is almost no longer possible if it is not a lie.
—R.D. Laing, 1967The believer in magic and miracles reflects on how to impose a law on nature—and, in brief, the religious cult is the outcome of this reflection.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1878Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear.
—William Shakespeare, 1592