I shall curse you with book and bell and candle.
—Thomas Malory, c. 1470Quotes
There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.
—John Locke, 1689God is alive. Magic is afoot.
—Leonard Cohen, 1966Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.
—Robertson Davies, 1985All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
—Plotinus, c. 255Man is always a wizard to man, and the social world is at first magical.
—Jean-Paul Sartre, 1939Egypt was the mother of magicians.
—Clement of Alexandria, c. 200One thing alone not even God can do: to make undone whatever has been done.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCTo 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 BCEverything that deceives does so by casting a spell.
—Plato, c. 375 BCOnce something becomes discernible, or understandable, we no longer need to repeat it. We can destroy it.
—Robert Wilson, 1991The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth.
—Gaston Bachelard, 1960The 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, 1878