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Quotes

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

To blow and to swallow at the same time is not easy; I cannot at the same time be here and also there.

—Plautus, c. 200 BC

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

—Aristophanes, 423 BC

There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.

—John Locke, 1689

God is alive. Magic is afoot.

—Leonard Cohen, 1966

Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost.

—Robert Southey, 1809

The mind is led on, step by step, to defeat its own logic.

—Dai Vernon, 1994

Nothing worth knowing can be understood with the mind.

—Woody Allen, 1979

The fact is certain because it is impossible.

—Tertullian, c. 200

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

—Thomas Szasz, 1970

A miracle entails a degree of irrationality—not because it shocks reason, but because it makes no appeal to it.

—Emmanuel Lévinas, 1952

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

Once something becomes discernible, or understandable, we no longer need to repeat it. We can destroy it.

—Robert Wilson, 1991