Archive

Quotes

To 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 BC

Once something becomes discernible, or understandable, we no longer need to repeat it. We can destroy it.

—Robert Wilson, 1991

Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.

—Robertson Davies, 1985

The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.

—Italo Calvino, 1967

There is not so contemptible a plant or animal that does not confound the most enlarged understanding.

—John Locke, 1689

Any serious attempt to do anything worthwhile is ritualistic.

—Derek Walcott, 1986

Many are the wonders of the world, and none so wonderful as man.

—Sophocles, c. 441 BC

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.

—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1878

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.

—Fr. Antonio Monserrate, 1590

I shall curse you with book and bell and candle.

—Thomas Malory, c. 1470

Appearances often are deceiving.

—Aesop, c. 550 BC

The 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

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

—Gaston Bachelard, 1960