Quotes About Illusion

But to subsist in bones, and be but Pyramidally extant, is a fallacy in duration.

Rough diamonds may sometimes be mistaken for worthless peddles

Rough diamonds may sometimes be mistaken for worthless pebbles.

This visible world is but a picture of the invisible, wherein, as in a portrait, things are not truly, but in equivocal shapes.

By the mid-seventeenth century, the visible image has assumed far greater reality than the invisible thought.

'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,And robes the mountain in its azure hue.

Weak eyes are fondest of glittering objects.

Well at ease are the Sleepers for whom Existence is a shallow Dream.

The Reality had swept the Formulas away before it.

Democracy, on this new occasion, finds all Kings conscious that they are but Play-actors.

Popular opinion is the greatest lie in the world.

Not the Opium-eater, but the opium, is the true hero of the tale, and the legitimate centre on which the interest revolves.

A mask of gold hides all deformities.

If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near.

Every time one can write a self-deluded song, you are way ahead of the game, way ahead. Self-delusion is the basis of nearly all the great scenes in all the great plays, from 'Oedipus' to 'Hamlet.'

Looks are like honey: They'll attract flies, bees, bears, but they won't necessarily keep them.

You get an image after you act in a film, but it is not necessary that you last long because of that image.

A public is a necessary fiction.

It may be that the deep necessity of art is the examination of self-deception.

I did an episode of 'Law & Order,' where I literally didn't move my neck because I thought you couldn't move your head on camera.

Everyone needs a fantasy.

It's really easy to get colors right. It's really hard to get black - and neutrals - right. Black is certainly a color but it's also an illusion.

Growing up so close to New York City, I always loved going to the city, but I'd be disappointed because songs about New York always made it seem so magical and perfect, and when I was younger, I just thought it was busy and dirty.

Trying to catch hold of yourself is a fool's errand. There is no you, only a series of former yous, created in one instant, deleted in the next.