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Illusion Quotes

Browse 3091 quotes about Illusion.

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Illusion Quotes

“Politics is a subordinate matter; its form of appearance constantly changes depending on the needs of the masses, the same way cocottes adjust to the needs of men by transforming and masking themselves. Because of that it is not fundamental. That is about what endures, what is unique, what is in the stream of illusions - what is eliminated from the workings of the shadows.”

MenWayNeedsMatterFormMassUniqueIllusionShadowFundamentalsEndureAppearanceStreamsTransformingSubordinates
Book:On My Painting - Max Beckmann
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“Marxism was the social creed and the social cry of those classes who knew by their miseries that the creed of the liberal optimists was s snare and a delusion... Liberalism and Marxism share a common illusion of the "children of light." Neither understands property as a form of power which can be used in either its individual or its social form as an instrument of particular interest against the general interest.”

ChildrenWisdomLightFormUsedPoliticsIndividualSocialInterestCommonClassEconomyShareCryParticularIllusionInstrumentsPropertyMiseryLiberalismDelusionCreedsOptimistMarxismSnares
Author:Reinhold Niebuhr
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“My favorite term for a new kind of performance is "security theater." In this genre, we watch as ritualized inspections and patdowns create the illusion of security. It's a form that has become common since 9/11, and even the government agencies that participate in this activity acknowledge,off the record, that it is indeed a species of theater.”

KindGovernmentFormTermCommonWatchesRecordsSecurityActivityIllusionPerformancesTheaterSpeciesMy FavoriteGenreAcknowledgeAgencyInspectionGovernment Agencies
Book:How Music Works
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“We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. Presumably the plans for our employment were being changed. I was to learn later in life that, perhaps because we are so good at organizing, we tend as a nation to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization.”

HardWould BeFormNationsSituationProgressPlansWonderfulTeamChangedCreatingIllusionMethodConfusionEmploymentTeamworkLater In LifeInefficiencyNew SituationsReorganizationProgress And ChangeDemoralizationIllusion Of Time
Author:Charlton Ogburn
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“Awakening is waking up from the daytime dream and realizing that who you thought you were is not limited to thought, emotion or form. Beyond the imaginary seeker, beyond concepts and beliefs, there is a field of innocence and purity. We are this deep peace and sacredness, which is absolute and beyond all intellectual understanding. I invite you to recognize this Essence of Being and to directly realize the illusion of all psychological suffering due to misidentification, misperception of separation and attachment to conditioned thought.”

DreamFormSufferingBeliefUnderstandingRealizingEmotionFieldsIntellectualIllusionConceptsEssenceWake UpAbsolutesDuesAwakeningSeparationPsychologicalInnocencePurityAttachmentWakingInvitesImaginarySeekersDaytimeSacrednessMisperception
Author:Katie Davis
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“We trained hard ... but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.”

HardWould BeFormSituationProgressWonderfulTeamCreatingIllusionMethodConfusionTeamworkEfficiencyTeam BuildingLater In LifeInefficiencyTeamwArbiterBuilding A TeamNew SituationsReorganizationDemoralization
Author:Charlton Ogburn
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“When you finally realize that peace is your natural state of being then you will know that any form of non-peace is a belief in illusion. Illusion that anything should be something other than what it is which can never be so. What if instead of waiting for what isn't to become your version of what is, why don't you be peaceful right now while you alter what isn't for you if you so choose? Is it ever worth it to wear a cloak of non-peacefulness over God Brilliance?”

IfsKnowsShouldStatesFormBeliefWaitingRealizingNaturalRight NowIllusionVersionsPeacefulWhat IfWorth ItBrillianceCloaksPeacefulness
Author:John Phillips
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“It may be that we exist and cease to exist in alternations, like the minute dots in some forms of toned printing or the succession of pictures on a cinema film. It may be that reality is an illusion of movement in an eternal, static, multidimensional universe. We may be only a story written on the ground of the inconceivable; the pattern on a rug beneath the feet of the incomprehensible.”

MayStoriesRealityFilmFormUniverseWrittenFeetMinutesMovementEternalIllusionPatternsCeaseCinemaSuccessionStaticPrintingDots
Author:H. G. Wells
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“Though men in the mass forget the origins of their need, they still bring wolfhounds into city apartments, where dog and man both sit brooding in wistful discomfort. The magic that gleams an instant between Argos and Odysseus is both the recognition of diversity and the need for affection across the illusions of form. It is nature's cry to homeless, far-wandering, insatiable man: "Do not forget your brethren, nor the green wood from which you sprang. To do so is to invite disaster.”

MenNeedsStillsFormForgetCitiesMagicDogCryDiversityMassIllusionGreenAffectionWoodsDisasterWanderRecognitionInstantInvitesApartmentHomelessDiscomfortBrethrenInsatiableGleamBroodingOdysseus
Author:Loren Eiseley
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“When we experience a film, we consciously prime ourselves for illusion. Putting aside will and intellect, we make way for it in our imagination. The sequence of pictures plays directly on our feelings. Music works in the same fashion; I would say that there is no art form that has so much in common with film as music. Both affect our emotions directly, not via the intellect. And film is mainly rhythm; it is inhalation and exhalation in continuous sequence.”

WayArtPlayFeelingsFilmFormImaginationCommonEmotionFashionIllusionIntellectRhythmPrimeSequence
Author:Ingmar Bergman
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“There are only shades of gray. Black and white are nothing more than lofty ideals in our minds, the standards by which we try to judge things, and map out our place in the world in relevance to them. Good and evil, in their purest form, are as intangible and forever beyond our ability to hold in our hand as any Fae illusion. We can only aim at them, aspire to them, and hope not to get so lost in the shadows that we can no longer aim for the light.”

WorldTryingMindHandsLightFormEvilLostBlackAbilityWhiteForeverJudgingStandardsIllusionShadowIdealsAimGood And EvilMapsGrayShadeBlack And WhiteAspireRelevanceFaeLoftyPlaces In The WorldIntangibleShades Of Gray
Book:Bloodfever: Fever Series
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“I believe it was the great ogre philosopher Gary who observed that complexity is, generally speaking, an illusion of conscious desire. All things exist in as simple a form as necessity dictates. When a thing is labeled 'complex,' that's just a roundabout way of saying you're not observant enough to understand it.”

WayBelieveEnoughFormDesireI BelieveSimpleIllusionConsciousAll ThingsComplexesPhilosopherComplexityGaryObservant
Book:In the Company of Ogres
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“To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation. This creates an endless preoccupation with past and future and an unwillingness to honor and acknowledge the present moment and allow it to be. The compulsion arises because the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are illusions.”

GivingMindMomentsPastFormSpiritualityMemoriesIdentityHonorPromiseIllusionSalvationEndlessAriseFulfillmentAcknowledgePresent MomentAnticipationTrappedCompulsionPreoccupationSpiritual Awareness
Book:Practicing the Power of Now: Essential Teachings, Meditations, and Exercises from the Power of Now
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“The 'I' casts off the illusion of the 'I' and yet remains 'I'. Such is the paradox of Self-realization. The Realized do not see any paradox in it. Consider the case of the worshipper. He approaches God and prays to be absorbed in Him. He then surrenders himself in faith and by concentration. And what remains afterwards? In the place of the original 'I', self-surrender leaves a residuum of God in which the 'I' is lost. That is the highest form of devotion or surrender and the peak of detachment.”

SelfFormLostCasesPrayingQuietApproachHighestIllusionOriginalsRemainsCastsSurrenderDevotionSelf RealizationRealizationConcentrationParadoxDetachmentWorshippers
Author:Ramana Maharshi
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“There is no inherent awakening power in cultural forms that have become dissociated from the wisdom and practicality that gave birth to them. They turn into illusions themselves and become part of the drama of religious culture. Although they can make us happy temporarily, they can't free us from suffering, so at some point, they become a source of disappointment and discouragement. Eventually, these forms may inspire nothing more than resistance to their authority.”

MayFormSufferingTurnsCultureReligiousInspireSourceBirthDramaAuthorityIllusionDisappointmentAwakeningResistanceInherentDiscouragementPracticality
Author:Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
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“The happiness of being envied is glamour. Being envied is a solitary form of reassurance. It depends precisely upon not sharing your experience with those who envy you. You are observed with interest but you do not observe with interest - if you do, you will become less enviable. In this respect the envied are like bureaucrats; the more impersonal they are, the greater the illusion (for themselves and for others) of their power. The power of the glamorous resides in their supposed happiness: the power of the bureaucrat in his supposed authority.”

IfsFormInterestGreaterDependsAuthorityIllusionEnvySolitaryGlamourGlamorousBureaucratsEnviedReassurance
Author:John Berger
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“Life is one, said the Buddha, and the Middle Way to the end of suffering in all its forms is that which leads to the end of the illusion of separation, which enables man to see, as a fact as clear as sunlight, that all mankind, and all other forms in manifestation, are one unit, the infinitely variable appearance of an indivisible Whole.”

MenWayLifeSaidEndsWholeFactsFormLife IsSufferingClearMiddleMankindIllusionEqualityAppearanceWhole LifeSeparationManifestationSunlightUnitsVariablesIndivisibleMiddle Way
Book:An Invitation to the Buddhist Way of Life for Western Readers
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