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

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.

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

Appearances often are deceiving.

To ensure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough; a police force is needed as well.

Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one’s bath like a lump of sugar.

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.

Have you ever, looking up, seen a cloud like to a centaur, a leopard, a wolf, or a bull?

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.

Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.

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.

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

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