Quotes About Illusion

Appearances are nothing.... And first of all they should not be feared, they are only dangerous to the weak.

There is no mask that temptation cannot wear.

God! how is it that we fail to recognize that the mask of pleasure, stripped of all hypocrisy, is that of anguish?

Je crois, je suis sûr que beaucoup d'hommes n'engagent jamais leur être, leur sincérité profonde. Ils vivent à la surface d'eux-mêmes, et le sol humain est si riche que cette mince couche superficielle suffit pour une maigre moisson, qui donne l'illusion d'une véritable destinée.

I believe, in fact I am certain, that many men never give out the whole of themselves, their deepest truth. They live on the surface, and yet, so rich is the soil of humanity that even this thin outer layer is able to yield a kind of meager harvest which gives the illusion of real living.

La femme séduite est "énamourée". Difficile à regarder. C'est comme un animal. J'essaie de séduire. Puis quand c'est fait, je trouve ridicule la personne séduite. Incapable d'en jouir. Je l'ai rendue idiote, la belle affaire. Tour de cartes. Mais je joue avec mes cartes. Quel drôle de prestidigitateur, qui en veut aux spectateurs de croire, de l'applaudir, qui joue sans jouer, qui souffre de tromper sans tromper. Oui quelle drôle de vie.

She came forward, the outlines of her figure blurred in the half-light. She came forward like a film star, or rather like the ideal woman in an adolescent's dream.

It may look like a boat with a hole, but it may be a hole with a boat.

True intimacy comes from honesty, not the illusion of sweetness.

Humans for the most part are unwary victims of the degree to which they have been controlled while at the same time purported to have freedom but in fact it is basically an illusion.

the glitter and wink of the trapped fish inside it.

Most of us are confused about what is real.

For appearances. Now there's a lovely thing to die for.

You," he continued, grabbing my wrist. "All of you, from the safe world, with your air bags and your tamper-proof packaging and your fat-free diets. You are the superstitious ones. You convince yourself you can cheat death, and you are absolutely offended when you learn that you can't. You sat in your nice little flat all through our war and watched us, bleeding all over the TV news. And you thought, 'How awful!' and then you got up and made yourself another cup of gourmet coffee.

As I was going up the stair I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. I wish, I wish, he'd stay away.

An illusion which makes me happy is worth a verity which drags me to the ground.

Winston Churchill is always expecting rabbits to come out of an empty hat.

Every real object must cease to be what it seemed and none could ever be what the whole soul desired.

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.

The intellect is always fooled by the heart.

Some folks can look so busy doing nothin' that they seem indispensable.

Who knows what true loneliness is - not the conventional word but the naked terror? To the lonely themselves it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion.

What treasures here do Mammon's sons behold! Yet know that all that which glitters is not gold.

It isn't so astonishing, the number of things that I can remember, as the number of things I can remember that aren't so.