Quotes About Illusion

For fear does things so like a witch, 'Tis hard t' unriddle which is which

This isn't a baguette, it's shit.

A penny will hide the biggest star in the Universe if you hold it close enough to your eye.

The world is seldom what it seems to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display qualities which he does not possess, and to gain applause which he cannot keep.

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

It is not that love sometimes makes mistakes, but that it is, essentially, a mistake. We fall in love when our imagination projects nonexistent perfections on to another person. One day the phantasmagoria vanishes, and with it love dies. Ortega y Gasset, On Love

In the cups, one after another, glistening disks rose, black without translucence.

What is down, then, is a chronicle of incidents with a potential for wholeness they did not have when they occurred; a false picture, again, because they show neither the general spread of our life's fabric, nor the most significant pattern points.

And for a moment (and only a moment), it was as if a gap between two absolute and unquestionably separated columns or encampments of the world had suddenly revealed itself as illusory; that what I had assumed two was really one; and that the glacial solidity of the boundary I'd been sure existed between them was as permeable as shimmering water, as shifting light.

Out on the path, sudden, luminous, and artificial, a seven-foot dragon swayed around the corner, followed by an equally tall mantis and a griffin. Like elegant plastics, internally lit and misty, they wobbled forward. When dragon and mantis swayed into each other, they—meshed! He thought of images, slightly unfocused, on a movie screen, lapping. "Scorpions…!" Tak whispered.

to be courted as princesses for a few weeks, in order to be treated as slaves for the rest of our lives.

Good and bad men are less than they seem.

Her lips were red, her looks were free,Her locks were yellow as gold:Her skin was white as leprosy,The nightmare Life-in-Death was she,Who thicks man's blood with cold.

Her lips were red, her looks were free, Her locks were yellow as gold: Her skin was white as leprosy, The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she, Who thicks man's blood with cold.

Certaines gens, plantés devant leur miroir, croient qu'ils réfléchissent, alors que c'est le contraire.

How it can be, that Ice Cream ain't existing anywhere. Will be no me to know that I ain't there.

How it can be, that Ice Cream ain't existing anywhere. Will be no me to know I ain't there.

To Ben's eye, there were no apparent signs of wealth, though he wasn't sure what he'd expected. Fountains?

The brain handles tasks sequentially but can switch attention between tasks so quickly that we're given the illusion that we can perform multiple tasks together. So if you want to get more done using less effort, aim to work on what's called your attentional ability: focus and concentrate on one sequence—one task—at a time and avoid distractions.

You're searching for unicorns among mules.

The thing about this city," Andray said. "It knows how to tell a beautiful story. It truly does. But if you're looking for a happy ending, you better be lookin' somewhere else.

The truth is a funny thing," Constance said. "Just when you think you've got a hold on it, it slips away.

The whole thing's illusion, [Jacob], and there's nothing wrong with that. It's what people want from us. It's what they expect.