illusions

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
5737023	If men could see us as we really are, they would be a little amazed; but the cleverest, the acutest men are often under an illusion about women: they do not read them in a true light: they misapprehend them, both for good and evil: their good woman is a queer thing, half doll, half angel; their bad woman almost always a fiend.	double-standards empowerment expectations false-belief feminism gender hypocrisy illusions misconceptions misogyny stereotypes women	Charlotte Brontë
4b0f220	if something is there, you can only see it with your eyes open, but if it isn't there, you can see it just as well with your eyes closed. That's why imaginary things are often easier to see than real ones.	fantasy fiction humor illusions imaginary imagination on-fiction reality	Norton Juster
01531b4	I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves.	delusions fantasy illusions religion	Christopher Hitchens
e2e7cde	Why do we call all our generous ideas illusions, and the mean ones truths?	idealism illusions truths	Edith Wharton
a6828b3	Music makes me forget myself, my true condition, it carries me off into another state of being, one that isn't my own: under the influence of music I have the illusion of feeling things I don't really feel, of understanding things I don't understand, being able to do things I'm not able to do (...) Can it really be allowable for anyone who feels like it to hypnotize another person, or many other persons, and then do what he likes with them? Particularly if the hypnotist is the first unscrupulous individual who happens to come along?	illusions music psychology	Leo Tolstoy
a6c0f97	We all suffer from dreams.	false-hope illusions suffering	Bernard Cornwell
18ca08a	"And when I fall in love," I began, "I will build a mountain to touch the sky. Then, my lover and I will have the best of both worlds, reality firmly under our feet, while we have our heads in the clouds with all our illusions still intact. And the purple grass will grow all around, high enough to reach our eyes."	clouds dreamers dreaming dreams fall-in-love feet firm grass grounded heads idealists ideals illusions love lover mountain purple realist reality sky worlds	V.C. Andrews
ace8329	It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going. Not consciously, of course--for consciously he is engaged in bewailing and cursing a faithless world that recedes further and further into the distance. Rather, it is an unconscious factor which spins the illusions that veil his world. And what is being spun is a cocoon, which in the end will completely envelop him.	illusions receding tragedy tragic	C.G. Jung
619569f	We're all mad, the whole damned race. We're wrapped in illusions, delusions, confusions about the penetrability of partitions, we're all mad and in solitary confinement.	delusions humanity illusions madness solitude	William Golding
f85fcba	War is being reminded that you are completely at the mercy of death at every moment, without the illusion that you are not. Without the distractions that make life worth living.	distractions illusions life war	Francesca Lia Block
0495200	Strange are the pictures of the future that mankind can thus draw with this brush of faith and these many-coloured pigments of the imagination! Strange, too, that no one of them tallies with another!	disagreement dreams faith future hopes ignorance illusions imagination mankind religion vain-hopes	H. Rider Haggard
9224d1b	Only poets and philosophers see the world as it really is, for only to them is it given to live without illusions. To see clearly is to not act.	illusions philosophers poets truth	Fernando Pessoa
9aa1cb4	Ils en conclurent que la syntaxe est une fantaisie et la grammaire une illusion.	grammar illusions language phantasies syntax	Gustave Flaubert
9636d57	Something can only become an illusion after disillusionment. Before that, it is something real.	childhood disillusionment illusions lynda-barry	Lynda Barry
9c3a765	"...He had few illusions, for here are some of the things that life had taught him: "Men hate those whom they have injured; men love those whom they have benefited; men naturally avoid their benefactors; men are universally actuated by self-interest; gratitude is a lovely sense of expected benefits; promises are never forgotten by those to whom they are made, usually by those who make them." --	illusions	W. Somerset Maugham
972cb6b	Hive Queen: So many of your people are becoming Christians. Believing in the god these humans brought with them. Human: You don't believe in God? Hive Queen: The question never came up. We have always remembered how we began. Human: You evolved. We were created. Hive Queen: By a virus. Human: By a virus that God created in order to create us. Hive Queen: So you, too, are a believer. Human: I understand belief. Hive Queen: No--you desire belief. Human: I desire it enough to act as if I believed. Maybe that's what faith is. Hive Queen: Or deliberate insanity.	illusions religion	Orson Scott Card
635e8f7	"...He had few illusions, for here are some of the things that life had taught him: "Men hate those whom they have injured; men love those whom they have benefited; men naturally avoid their benefactors; men are universally actuated by self-interest; gratitude is a lovely sense of expected benefits; promises are never forgotten by those to whom they are made, usually by those who make them."	illusions	W. Somerset Maugham
aeade7d	It is hard to explain just how a single sight of a tangible object with measurable dimensions could so shake and change a man; and we may only say that there is about certain outlines and entities a power of symbolism and suggestion which acts frightfully on a sensitive thinker's perspective and whispers terrible hints of obscure cosmic relationships and unnamable realities behind the protective illusions of common vision.	entities hints illusions perspective sight symbolism tangible vision whispers	H.P. Lovecraft
e062ee4	Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization.	illusions truth	Barbara Kingsolver
2a9367e	What happiness there had been in those days! What freedom! What hope! What an abundance of illusions! She had none left now. Each new venture had cost her some of them, each of her successive conditions: as virgin, wife and mistress; she had lost them all along the course of her life, like a traveler who leaves some of his wealth at every inn along the road.	illusions life romaticism	Gustave Flaubert
9a86739	I share your feeling that such behavior is, in some sense, unwise or erroneous, but this does not mean that it does not occur,' Amos wrote to an American economist who complained about the description of human nature implied by 'Value Theory.' 'A theory of vision cannot be faulted for predicting optical illusions. Similarly, a descriptive theory of choice cannot be rejected on the grounds that it predicts 'irrational behavior' if the behavior in question is in fact observed.	complain illusions	Michael Lewis
b5d0fd5	For other men --- men who are part of something, who follow a chief they believe in, or ways they were reared in from birth --- they can keep their eyes from seeing what they have not been taught to see, and do not want to see. But too late was I brought to my father's house. I tried to be part of it, but I never could.	illusions joiners skeptics traditions unpleasant-truths	Evangeline Walton
f1f15d6	Why, Mr. Anderson?, Why, why?. Why do you do it? Why, why get up?. Why keep fighting?. Do you believe you're fighting...for something?. For more than your survival?. Can you tell me what it is?. Do you even know?; Is it freedom?, Or truth?. Perhaps peace?. Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although... only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now, You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson?. Why?, Why do you persist?. Agent Smith ( Matrix Revolutions Movie, 2003 ).	existence fight freedom human-beings illusions love matrix passion perception persistence survival survival-instinct truth why why-we-live win	William Irwin

5737023

If men could see us as we really are, they would be a little amazed; but the cleverest, the acutest men are often under an illusion about women: they do not read them in a true light: they misapprehend them, both for good and evil: their good woman is a queer thing, half doll, half angel; their bad woman almost always a fiend.

double-standards empowerment expectations false-belief feminism gender hypocrisy illusions misconceptions misogyny stereotypes women

Charlotte Brontë

4b0f220

if something is there, you can only see it with your eyes open, but if it isn't there, you can see it just as well with your eyes closed. That's why imaginary things are often easier to see than real ones.

fantasy fiction humor illusions imaginary imagination on-fiction reality

Norton Juster

01531b4

I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves.

delusions fantasy illusions religion

Christopher Hitchens

e2e7cde

Why do we call all our generous ideas illusions, and the mean ones truths?

idealism illusions truths

Edith Wharton

a6828b3

Music makes me forget myself, my true condition, it carries me off into another state of being, one that isn't my own: under the influence of music I have the illusion of feeling things I don't really feel, of understanding things I don't understand, being able to do things I'm not able to do (...) Can it really be allowable for anyone who feels like it to hypnotize another person, or many other persons, and then do what he likes with them? Particularly if the hypnotist is the first unscrupulous individual who happens to come along?

illusions music psychology

Leo Tolstoy

a6c0f97

We all suffer from dreams.

false-hope illusions suffering

Bernard Cornwell

18ca08a

"And when I fall in love," I began, "I will build a mountain to touch the sky. Then, my lover and I will have the best of both worlds, reality firmly under our feet, while we have our heads in the clouds with all our illusions still intact. And the purple grass will grow all around, high enough to reach our eyes."

clouds dreamers dreaming dreams fall-in-love feet firm grass grounded heads idealists ideals illusions love lover mountain purple realist reality sky worlds

V.C. Andrews

ace8329

It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going. Not consciously, of course--for consciously he is engaged in bewailing and cursing a faithless world that recedes further and further into the distance. Rather, it is an unconscious factor which spins the illusions that veil his world. And what is being spun is a cocoon, which in the end will completely envelop him.

illusions receding tragedy tragic

C.G. Jung

619569f

We're all mad, the whole damned race. We're wrapped in illusions, delusions, confusions about the penetrability of partitions, we're all mad and in solitary confinement.

delusions humanity illusions madness solitude

William Golding

f85fcba

War is being reminded that you are completely at the mercy of death at every moment, without the illusion that you are not. Without the distractions that make life worth living.

distractions illusions life war

Francesca Lia Block

0495200

Strange are the pictures of the future that mankind can thus draw with this brush of faith and these many-coloured pigments of the imagination! Strange, too, that no one of them tallies with another!

disagreement dreams faith future hopes ignorance illusions imagination mankind religion vain-hopes

H. Rider Haggard

9224d1b

Only poets and philosophers see the world as it really is, for only to them is it given to live without illusions. To see clearly is to not act.

illusions philosophers poets truth

Fernando Pessoa

9aa1cb4

Ils en conclurent que la syntaxe est une fantaisie et la grammaire une illusion.

grammar illusions language phantasies syntax

Gustave Flaubert

9636d57

Something can only become an illusion after disillusionment. Before that, it is something real.

childhood disillusionment illusions lynda-barry

Lynda Barry

9c3a765

"...He had few illusions, for here are some of the things that life had taught him: "Men hate those whom they have injured; men love those whom they have benefited; men naturally avoid their benefactors; men are universally actuated by self-interest; gratitude is a lovely sense of expected benefits; promises are never forgotten by those to whom they are made, usually by those who make them." --

illusions

W. Somerset Maugham

972cb6b

Hive Queen: So many of your people are becoming Christians. Believing in the god these humans brought with them. Human: You don't believe in God? Hive Queen: The question never came up. We have always remembered how we began. Human: You evolved. We were created. Hive Queen: By a virus. Human: By a virus that God created in order to create us. Hive Queen: So you, too, are a believer. Human: I understand belief. Hive Queen: No--you desire belief. Human: I desire it enough to act as if I believed. Maybe that's what faith is. Hive Queen: Or deliberate insanity.

illusions religion

Orson Scott Card

635e8f7

"...He had few illusions, for here are some of the things that life had taught him: "Men hate those whom they have injured; men love those whom they have benefited; men naturally avoid their benefactors; men are universally actuated by self-interest; gratitude is a lovely sense of expected benefits; promises are never forgotten by those to whom they are made, usually by those who make them."

illusions

W. Somerset Maugham

aeade7d

It is hard to explain just how a single sight of a tangible object with measurable dimensions could so shake and change a man; and we may only say that there is about certain outlines and entities a power of symbolism and suggestion which acts frightfully on a sensitive thinker's perspective and whispers terrible hints of obscure cosmic relationships and unnamable realities behind the protective illusions of common vision.

entities hints illusions perspective sight symbolism tangible vision whispers

H.P. Lovecraft

e062ee4

Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization.

illusions truth

Barbara Kingsolver

2a9367e

What happiness there had been in those days! What freedom! What hope! What an abundance of illusions! She had none left now. Each new venture had cost her some of them, each of her successive conditions: as virgin, wife and mistress; she had lost them all along the course of her life, like a traveler who leaves some of his wealth at every inn along the road.

illusions life romaticism

Gustave Flaubert

9a86739

I share your feeling that such behavior is, in some sense, unwise or erroneous, but this does not mean that it does not occur,' Amos wrote to an American economist who complained about the description of human nature implied by 'Value Theory.' 'A theory of vision cannot be faulted for predicting optical illusions. Similarly, a descriptive theory of choice cannot be rejected on the grounds that it predicts 'irrational behavior' if the behavior in question is in fact observed.

complain illusions

Michael Lewis

b5d0fd5

For other men --- men who are part of something, who follow a chief they believe in, or ways they were reared in from birth --- they can keep their eyes from seeing what they have not been taught to see, and do not want to see. But too late was I brought to my father's house. I tried to be part of it, but I never could.

illusions joiners skeptics traditions unpleasant-truths

Evangeline Walton

f1f15d6

Why, Mr. Anderson?, Why, why?. Why do you do it? Why, why get up?. Why keep fighting?. Do you believe you're fighting...for something?. For more than your survival?. Can you tell me what it is?. Do you even know?; Is it freedom?, Or truth?. Perhaps peace?. Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although... only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now, You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson?. Why?, Why do you persist?. Agent Smith ( Matrix Revolutions Movie, 2003 ).

existence fight freedom human-beings illusions love matrix passion perception persistence survival survival-instinct truth why why-we-live win

William Irwin