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
Rob the average man of his illusion and you rob him of his happiness at one stroke.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that we live, if we do
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973) Irish Novelist, Short-story Writer
He Himself is Maya, and He Himself is the Illusion. He Himself has generated emotional attachment throughout the entire universe.
—The Guru Granth Sahib Sacred Text of Sikhism
The tricks of illusion came to him so easily that it seemed he had been born knowing them and needed only to be reminded
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b.1929) American Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer
Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so.
—Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English Novelist, Scriptwriter
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
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
Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
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
For what we call illusions are often, in truth, a wider vision of past and present realities—a willing movement of a man’s soul with the larger sweep of the world’s forces—a movement towards a more assured end than the chances of a single life.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Pray look better, Sir… those things yonder are no giants, but windmills.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
We cast away priceless time in dreams, born of imagination, fed upon illusion, and put to death by reality.
—Judy Garland (1922–69) American Actress, Singer
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
A pleasant illusion is better than a harsh reality.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
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
Great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Half the work that is done in this world is to make things appear what they are not.
—Elias Root Beadle (1812–65) American 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
The impression forces itself upon one that men measure by false standards, that everyone seeks power, success, riches for himself, and admires others who attain them, while undervaluing the truly precious thing in life.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
Belief in the absence of illusions is itself an illusion.
—Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (1934–2002) American Journalist, Essayist, Memoirist, Travel Writer
I have realized that the past and the future are real illusions, that they exist only in the present, which is what there is and all that there is.
—Alan Watts (1915–73) British-American Philosopher, Author
Man seeks to escape himself in myth, and does so by any means at his disposal. Drugs, alcohol, or lies. Unable to withdraw into himself, he disguises himself. Lies and inaccuracy give him a few moments of comfort.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
Illusion and wisdom combined are the charm of life and art.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted.
—Arthur Miller (1915–2005) American Playwright, Essayist
As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be
—Saul Alinsky (1909–72) American Community Organizer, Political Theorist
Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.
—Arthur Koestler (1905–83) British Writer, Journalist, Political Refugee
They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Therefore trust to thy heart, and to what the world calls illusions.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
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
Artists use frauds to make human beings seem more wonderful than they really are. Dancers show us human beings who move much more gracefully than human beings really move. Films and books and plays show us people talking much more entertainingly than people.
—Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
All that we see or seen is but a dream within a dream.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
It appears to me that almost any man may like the spider spin from his own inwards his own airy citadel.
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
For every age is fed on illusions, lest men should renounce life early, and the human race come to an end.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
Emotional attachment to Maya is created by my God; He Himself misleads us through illusion and doubt.
—The Guru Granth Sahib Sacred Text of Sikhism
Every generous illusion of youth leaves a wrinkle as it departs. Experience is the successive disenchanting of the things of life; it is reason enriched with the heart’s spoils.
—Jean Antoine Petit-Senn (1792–1870) Swiss Poet
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
We always think every other man’s job is easier than our own. The better he does it, the easier it looks.
—Eden Phillpotts (1862–1960) English Author, Poet, Dramatist
What we gain by experience is not worth that we lose in illusion.
—Jean Antoine Petit-Senn (1792–1870) Swiss Poet
What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments, despair, eternal death.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
The one person who has more illusions than the dreamer is the man of action.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
A woman should be an illusion.
—Ian L. Fleming (1908–64) English Novelist, Journalist, Naval Intelligence Officer
A poor man with nothing in his belly needs hope, illusion, more than bread.
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948) French Author
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.
—John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1874–1960) American Philanthropist, Businessperson