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.

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

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

The fear of the Lord is true wisdom, and he who hath it not can in no way penetrate the true secrets of magic.

There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to see what is reaching toward him and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. Man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange.

Egypt was the mother of magicians.

Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.

Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs.

All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.

The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science.

I shall curse you with book and bell and candle.

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.