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

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

Egypt was the mother of magicians.

I shall curse you with book and bell and candle.

Any serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.

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.

Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost.

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

One thing alone not even God can do: to make undone whatever has been done.

The mind is led on, step by step, to defeat its own logic.

Men willingly believe what they wish.

Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs.

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.