Quotes About Superstition

Split a young ash sapling a few feet down its trunk. At sunrise, pass the child through the cleft, three to nine times, against the sun. Then bind the tree and plaster the fissure with mud or clay. If the tree fares well, so will the child.

nada hay más despreciable, ni peligroso, que un malvado que cada noche se va a dormir con la conciencia tranquila. Muy malo es eso. En especial, cuando viene parejo con la ignorancia, la superstición, la estupidez o el poder; que a menudo se dan juntos.

Why, I've just thought of something, something very important—we haven't named the new boat! It's awfully unlucky to go on a voyage in a new boat which has no name. What shall we do?' 'Why, name it, of course,' said Baldmoney with a superior air.

Turning, she saw a crow staring at her from the balcony with its beady little dark eyes. The bird flapped its silken ebony wings at her and hopped to the chair closest to the open door. Wasn't there some superstition about crows and death?

Bad luck always comes in threes.

I had only one superstition. I made sure to touch all the bases when I hit a home run.

Wise judges have prescribed that men may not rashly believe the confessions of witches, nor the evidence against them; for the witches themselves are imaginative; and people are credulous, and ready to impute accidents to witchcraft.

Superstition, without a veil, is a deformed thing; for, as it addeth deformity to an ape, to be so like a man, so the similitude of superstition to religion, makes it the more deformed. And as wholesome meat corrupteth to little worms, so good forms and orders corrupt, into a number of petty observances.

There is a superstition in avoiding superstition.

The Opera ghost really existed. He was not, as was long believed, a creature of the imagination of the artists, the superstition of the managers, or a product of the absurd and impressionable brains of the young ladies of the ballet, their mothers, the box-keepers, the cloak-room attendants or the concierge. Yes, he existed in flesh and blood, although he assumed the complete appearance of a real phantom; that is to say, of a spectral shade. When

Sorelli was very superstitious. She shuddered when she heard little Jammes speak of the ghost, called her a "silly little fool" and then, as she was the first to believe in ghosts in general, and the Opera ghost in particular, at once asked for details: "Have you seen him?" "As plainly as I see you now!" said little Jammes

A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.

I noticed that all the prayers I used to offer to God, and all the prayers I now offer to Joe Pesci, are being answered at about the same fifty percent rate. Half the time I get what I want, half the time I don't...Same as the four-leaf clover and the horseshoe...same as the voodoo lady who tells you your fortune by squeezing the goat's testicles. It's all the same...so just pick your superstition, sit back, make a wish, and enjoy yourself...

Instead of trying to still his fears he encouraged them, with that superstitious impression which clings to us all that if we expect evil very strongly it is the less likely to come...

As to his religious notions—why, as Voltaire said, incantations will destroy a flock of sheep if administered with a certain quantity of arsenic.

the involuntary loss of any familiar object almost always brings a chill as from an evil omen; it seems to be the first finger-shadow of advancing death. From

My insights come in periods of working. There are wonderful moments of surprise, but I'm superstitious enough not to want to talk about them.

Superstition is foolish, childish, primitive and irrational - but how much does it cost you to knock on wood?

Before I drop in, I tend to knock on my snowboard. You know how when you jinx yourself, they're like, 'Knock on wood.' My snowboard's wood, so in case I jinxed myself sometime in the past, I just knock on my board. It just makes me feel a lot more comfortable.

A word is an arbitrary label - that's the foundation of linguistics. But many people think otherwise. They believe in word magic: that uttering a spell, incantation, curse, or prayer can change the world. Don't snicker: Would you ever say, 'Nothing has gone wrong yet' without looking for wood to knock?

I've never had staph in my life. Knock on wood, I never will.

I hate to say it because I feel like it might be a jinx, but yes - knock on wood - I have never broken a bone.

Trying to understand superstition rationally is like trying to pick up something made of wood by using a magnet.

The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and these are ignorance, superstition and incompetence.