Archive

Quotes

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

—Aristophanes, 423 BC

Men willingly believe what they wish.

—Julius Caesar, c. 50 BC

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

—Thomas Szasz, 1970

I shall curse you with book and bell and candle.

—Thomas Malory, c. 1470

In 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, 1967

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

—Saint Augustine, c. 400

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

Egypt was the mother of magicians.

—Clement of Alexandria, c. 200

There are times when reality becomes too complex for oral communication. But legend gives it a form by which it pervades the whole world.

—Jean-Luc Godard, 1965

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

—Tom Robbins, 1976

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

—Gaston Bachelard, 1960

The Mughal’s nature is such that they demand miracles, but if a miracle were to be performed by some upright follower of our religion, they would say that it had been brought about by magic and sorcery. They would strike him down with spears or would stone him to death.

—Fr. Antonio Monserrate, 1590

The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.

—Italo Calvino, 1967