Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
—Aesop (620–564 BCE) Greek Fabulist
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
A poor man with nothing in his belly needs hope, illusion, more than bread.
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948) French Novelist, Polemicist
He may be seen as one of the architects of an illusion. Or he may be seen as one of the architects of global stability. That needs at least a decade to play out.
—John Zogby (b.1948) American Pollster
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 one person who has more illusions than the dreamer is the man of action.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
However, one cannot put a quart in a pint cup.
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American Feminist, Writer
If a fox is unable to befriend a tiger, then the fox should create an illusion of close association with the tiger by carefully trailing behind the cat while boasting of the deep friendship they share. In this way, he creates an impression that his well being is of great concern to the tiger.
—Chin-Ning Chu (1917–2000) American Poet , Writer
They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
What we gain by experience is not worth that we lose in illusion.
—Jean Antoine Petit-Senn (1792–1870) French-Swiss Lyric 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
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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
For those who have seen the earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us.
—Donald E. Williams (1942–2016) American Astronaut, Naval Officer
A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.
—Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-American Novelist
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
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
He who knows that this body s like froth, and has learnt that it is as unsubstantial as a mirage, will break the flower-pointed arrow of illusion, and never see the king of death.
—The Dhammapada Buddhist Anthology of Verses
Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
How strange when an illusion dies, it’s as though you’ve lost a child.
—Judy Garland (1922–69) American Actress, Singer
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, Novelist
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
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
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
Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.
—Arthur Koestler (1905–83) British Writer, Journalist, Political Refugee
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 the mirages of Hope.
—Unknown
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 Novelist, Dramatist, Poet
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