Quotes About Illusion

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to believe.

the main function of a pseudo-promotion is to deceive people outside the hierarchy. When this is achieved, the maneuver is counted a success.

Acting is illusion, as much illusion as magic is, and not so much a matter of being real.

There is no such thing as real happiness in life. The justest definition that was ever given of it was "a tranquil acquiescence under an agreeable delusion"--I forget where.

But I had their instant, magnetic liking for my enemy and before I knew where, or even who I was, I had become prisoner of the effect I had on them. [...] I was shackled not so much to my good looks, as to what people, after seeing me, first imagined and then through their imaginations compelled me to be.

No matter the truth, people see what they want to see..

Let's pretend," he says, "that you never met me. That she was never born. That none of this ever happened." Then he is gone.

rainbow of different, beautiful lies. But now, seeing the picture

everything had to be beautiful and perfect on the outside, no matter what mess lay within

The closed curtains glow like a blank television screen.

Like a child, she would not see beyond the demolished walls of her soap bubble which had encased her in its iridescence, promising scarves of brilliant colours, perfume, fine stockings, cosmetics, bracelets, rich warm cardigans, petticoats with frills and inset lace. Tablets of soap, bed socks and two handkerchiefs were weapons piercing her with old age.

Tanzimattan bu yana Türk ayd?n?n?n al?nyaz?s? iki kelimede dü?ümleniyordu: aldanmak ve aldatmak. Senaryoyu ba?kalar? haz?rlam??t?, biz sadece birer oyuncuyduk. Nesiller bir ütopyan?n kurban? olmu?lard?… Avrupa'y? tan?mak gaflet; Avrupa'y? tan?yan ülkeisnden kopuyor. Bu lanet çemberinden nas?l kurtulaca??z? (Ma?aradakiler, s,323)

No fathers and mothers think their own children ugly, and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind.

The art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies.

Human imagination is immensely poorer than reality.

Erano gli unici, i soldati, ad accorgersi che le donne esistevano ancora. Nella citùù disordinata e sempre all'erta, più nessuno osservava le donne di un tempo, nessuno le seguiva, nemmeno vestite da estate, nemmeno se ridevano. Anche in questo la guerra, io l'avevo prevista. Per me questo rischio era cessato da un pezzo. Se avevo ancora desideri, non avevo più illusioni.

If it is true that a man marries, for preference, his opposite (the "law of life"), that is because we have an instinctive horror of being tied to someone who displays the same defects and idiosyncrasies as ourselves. The reason is obviously that defects and idiosyncrasies, discovered in someone near to us, rob us of the illusion-which we formerly fostered-that in ourselves they would be eccentricities, excusable because of their originality.

Self-deception is a constant problem as we progress along a spiritual path. Ego is always trying to achieve spirituality. It is rather like wanting to witness your own funeral.

The skandhas present a complete picture of ego. According to Buddhist psychology, the ego is simply a collection of skandhas or heaps—but actually there is no such thing as ego. It is a brilliant work of art, a product of the intellect, which says, "Let's give all this a name. Let's call it 'I.

At first, the mountains are mountains and streams are streams. Then, the mountains are not mountains and streams are not streams. But in the end, mountains are mountains again and streams are streams again.

That is one definition of the setting-sun mentality: trying to conquer the earth so that you can ward off reality

Enlightenment is ego's ultimate disappointment.

Life is like a reel life but real life is not reel life.

The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.