Quotes About Illusion

I thought I could start over, you see. But now I know you can never start over. Not really. You think you have control, but you are like a fly in somebody else's web.

I couldn't help but think about the daily fighting that continued to consume Iraq and Afghanistan and all the cruelty and suffering and injustice that my administration had barely even begun to deal with. The idea that I, or any one person, could bring order to such chaos seemed laughable; on some level, the crowds below were cheering an illusion.

I was actually doing in my life. I was like a young Walter Mitty; a Don Quixote with no Sancho Panza.

the months to come, I'd think back often to my dinner with Abbas and Netanyahu, Mubarak and King Abdullah, the pantomime of it, their lack of resolve. To insist that the old order in the Middle East would indefinitely hold, to believe that the children of despair wouldn't revolt, at some point, against those who maintained it—that, it turned out, was the greatest illusion of all. —

But life could not be lived between the pages of a romance novel.

The people on board the ship would believe that they had left Cherbourg yesterday, that where they were at the moment in the middle of the ocean was today and New York was several days ahead." "I see what you mean," the Duke said slowly. "For you and me high up in the sky, it would all be happening at the same moment.

When you watch television, you never see people watching television. We love television because it brings us a world in which television does not exist.

Some economists argue that the apparent paradox rests on an illusion: there is no real 'labor shortage,' only a shortage of people willing to work at the wages currently being offered. You might as well talk about a 'Lexus shortage' — which there is, in a sense, for anyone unwilling to pay $40,000 for a car.

I was occupied so entirely by each day, I felt detached from anything so large as a month or a year. History didn't cross my mind. Now it does. Now I know, whatever your burdens, to hold yourself apart from the lot of more powerful men is an illusion. On that awful day in January 1961, Lumumba paid with a life and so did I. On the wings of an owl the fallen Congo came to haunt even our little family, we messengers of goodwill adrift on a sea of mistaken intentions.

Counting on Jesus to save the day is no more real than sending up the Batman signal.

In my opinion, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from a greaty height.

the useful illusion that everything would be fine. It amazed her now to watch people walking through life with their ludicrous trust.

might call it a great passion. When the true name of what we're dealing with is greed, or lust. We all have the special talent of believing in a falsehood, and believing it devoutly, when we want it to be true.

We have the illusion of consumer freedom, but we've sacrificed our community life for the pleasure of purchasing lots of cheap stuff. We often have the form of liberty, but not the substance

Misunderstanding is my cornerstone. It's everyone's, come to think of it. Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization.

He behaves as if he had no dead children. The real Leandro never comes here. He only pretends.

Physical pleasure was such a convincing illusion, and sex, the ultimate charade of safety.

Until that moment I'd always beloved i could still go home and pretend the Congo never happened

The dancers were butterflies. From a hundred paces Salomé could see the dirt under these girls' fingernails, but not their wings.

why, he very nearly almost looked handsome. If you could ignore the telltale signs that he is a certified creep.

Now I know, whatever your burdens, to hold yourself apart from the lot of more powerful men is an illusion.

Dellarobia watched the void of this man where once there had been wonder, and she despaired of her future. In such a short time he had relieved her of a lifetime of illusions, and already she missed them.

In my opinion, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from a great height.

Even a spotted pig looks black at night.