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, 1967Quotes
God is alive. Magic is afoot.
—Leonard Cohen, 1966Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.
—Robertson Davies, 1985In the past, men created witches; now they create mental patients.
—Thomas Szasz, 1970Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one’s bath like a lump of sugar.
—Pablo Picasso, 1929Once something becomes discernible, or understandable, we no longer need to repeat it. We can destroy it.
—Robert Wilson, 1991The 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, 1878Have you ever, looking up, seen a cloud like to a centaur, a leopard, a wolf, or a bull?
—Aristophanes, 423 BCThere is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689Many are the wonders of the world, and none so wonderful as man.
—Sophocles, c. 441 BCEgypt was the mother of magicians.
—Clement of Alexandria, c. 200Any serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.
—Derek Walcott, 1986The fear of the Lord is true wisdom, and he who hath it not can in no way penetrate the true secrets of magic.
—Abraham the Jew, c. 1400