For me, it is as though at every moment the actual world had completely lost its actuality. As though there was nothing there; as though there were no foundations for anything or as though it escaped us. Only one thing, however, is vividly present: the constant tearing of the veil of appearances; the constant destruction of everything in construction. Nothing holds together, everything falls apart.
—Eugene Ionesco (1909–94) Romanian-born French Dramatist
Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so.
—Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English Novelist, Scriptwriter
How strange when an illusion dies, it’s as though you’ve lost a child.
—Judy Garland (1922–69) American Actress, Singer
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back
—Carl Sagan (1934–96) American Astronomer
Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.
—Arthur Koestler (1905–83) British Writer, Journalist, Political Refugee
What difference is there, do you think, between those in Plato’s cave who can only marvel at the shadows and images of various objects, provided they are content and don’t know what they miss, and the philosopher who has emerged from the cave and sees the real things?
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
In youth we feel richer for every new illusion; in maturer years, for every one we lose.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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.
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
We trained hard-but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization.
—Petronius (c.27–66 CE) Roman Courtier, Novelist
They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Rob the average man of his illusion and you rob him of his happiness at one stroke.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
I didn’t know there were so many gay people out there. Everywhere, they turn up. More importantly, I think I’m amazed how people everywhere have had the sensitivity to want to get into the complexity of the issue, the probability of love, the illusion of love, all those things. It’s not simple things you can categorize as right or wrong.
—Ang Lee (b.1954) Taiwanese Film Director, Screenwriter
The loss of our illusions is the only loss from which we never recover.
—Ouida (Maria Louise Rame) (1839–1908) English Novelist
If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered.
—Stanley Kubrick (1928–99) American Film Director, Writer, Film Producer, Photographer
It isn’t safe to sit in judgment upon another person’s illusion when you are not on the inside. While you are thinking it is a dream, he may be knowing it is a planet.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone.
—Margaret J. Wheatley American Management Consultant, Writer
Don’t believe your friends when they ask you to be honest with them. All they really want is to be maintained in the good opinion they have of themselves.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Lost Illusion is the undisclosed title of every novel.
—Andre Maurois (1885–1967) French Novelist, Biographer
What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires—desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.
—John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1874–1960) American Philanthropist, Businessperson
People who have realized that this is a dream imagine that it is easy to wake up, and are angry with those who continue sleeping, not considering that the whole world that environs them does not permit them to wake. Life proceeds as a series of optical illusions, artificial needs and imaginary sensations.
—Alexander Herzen (1812–70) Russian Revolutionary, Writer
A woman should be an illusion.
—Ian L. Fleming (1908–64) English Novelist, Journalist, Naval Intelligence Officer
When the boys come into my yard for leave to gather horse-chestnuts, I own I enter into nature’s game, and affect to grant the permission reluctantly, fearing that any moment they will find out the imposture of that showy chaff. But this tenderness is quite unnecessary; the enchantments are laid on very thick. Their young life is thatched with them. Bare and grim to tears is the lot of the children in the hovel I saw yesterday; yet not the less they hang it round with frippery romance, like the children of the happiest fortune.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
—Aesop (620–564 BCE) Greek Fabulist
Illusions are the mirages of Hope
—Unknown
Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic