The 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.

Men willingly believe what they wish.

I shall curse you with book and bell and candle.

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

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

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.

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

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

Many are the wonders of the world, and none so wonderful as man.

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

The fact is certain because it is impossible.

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

Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear.