Archive

Quotes

God is alive. Magic is afoot.

—Leonard Cohen, 1966

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

Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe.

—Demosthenes, 349 BC

Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.

—Robertson Davies, 1985

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

—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1939

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

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

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

—Robert Wilson, 1991

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

—Gaston Bachelard, 1960

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

—Robert Southey, 1809

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

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

—Italo Calvino, 1967

Nothing worth knowing can be understood with the mind.

—Woody Allen, 1979