Quotes About Illusion

Car ce que nous croyons notre amour, notre jalousie, ce n'est pas une même passion continue, indivisible. Ils se composent d'une infinité d'amours successifs, de jalousies différentes et qui sont éphémères, mais par leur multitude ininterrompue donnent l'impression de la continuité, l'illusion de l'unité.

In any case, Swann was blind not only to the gaps in Odette's education, but also to her poverty of mind. Indeed, when she told one of her silly stories, he would listen to her full of an obliging, cheerful, even admiring attentiveness, which could be explained only by his finding her still sexually arousing;

Let but a single real feature—the little that one distinguishes of a woman seen from afar or from behind—enable us to project the form of beauty before our eyes, we imagine that we have seen her before, our heart beats, we hasten in pursuit, and will always remain half-persuaded that it was she, provided that the woman has vanished: it is only if we manage to overtake her that we realise our mistake.

No por saber una cosa se la puede impedir; pero siquiera las cosas que averiguamos las tenemos, si no entre las manos, por lo menos en el pensamiento, y allí están a nuestra disposición, lo cual nos inspira la ilusión de gozar sobre ellas una especie de dominio

Les faits ne pénètrent pas dans le monde où vivent nos croyances, ils n'ont pas fait naître celles-ci, ils ne les détruisent pas.

En otro tiempo creí que la abeja era un beso con alas. Acabo de mojar mi dedo en un panal, y todo el perfume de la miel nueva se evaporó. Ha cesado de agradarme la miel.

Was there a straight line on earth before we drew one?

Everybody is convinced they have seen something others have not seen, and they delude themselves that they have thought things that other have it thought, but this is just because someone has taken the trouble to tell an ordinary story in an extraordinary way.

Sometimes things are less than they seem.

The human animal only sees what it wants to see.

Yo soñé que soñaba. Y soñé que despertaba del segundo sueño, del sueño soñado y decía: "Ah, fue un sueño", y creía estar despierto. Quizá la vida sea eso, un sueño metido dentro de otro. Quizá la vida sea el tercer sueño concéntrico del que uno despierta cuando se muere.

But those who believe that what our people desire is big government are living in a state of delusion.

Art is a deception that creates real emotions — a lie that creates a truth. And when you give yourself over to that deception, it becomes magic.

People don't want the truth, not really. They want safe lives and nice electronics and full fridges." He

People don't want the truth, not really. They want safe lives and nice electronics and full fridges.

He tried to grasp the thought, but it was like throwing his arms around smoke.

It's like the parable about a man who dreamed he was a butterfly. When he woke, he couldn't be sure that he wasn't a butterfly dreaming he was a man. And

People think I have so much faith in myself, but I have none. I have no faith in myself, or in what I can do, and yet people think I can do anything I want. That's how I seem, but it's an illusion. It's an act, nothing more.

Something else: it always struck me as troubling that the words in books are printed in black and white, when life is anything but. The binary colour of words on a page give the sense of simplicity and clarity. But life doesn't work like that.

Confronted by too much emptiness ... the brain invents. Loneliness creates company as thirst creates water. How many sailors have been wrecked in pursuit of islands that were merely a shimmering?

When we think of the past it's the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.

Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.

When we think of the past it's the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.

My greatest enemy is reality. I have fought it successfully for thirty years.