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Illusion Quotes

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Illusion Quotes

“But what else can we do when we're so weak? We invest hours each day, months each year, years each lifetime in something over which we have no control; it is any wonder then, that we are reduced to creating ingenious but bizarre liturgies designed to give us the illusion that we are powerful after all, just as every other primitive community has done when faced with a deep and apparently impenetrable mystery?”

GivingYearsDoneCommunityHoursPowerfulWonderMysteryMonthsCreatingIllusionWeakLifetimeEach DayPrimitiveBizarreIngeniousLiturgy
Author:Nick Hornby
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“I've made a profound transformation. I've fashioned some cyber-underwear. I'm not scared of anything! Actually, I am scared of a few things. Cyber world is a world of adventure, a new galaxy. I'm big on adventure. But I don't assume that just because the word cyber is being used as a prefix, doesn't give it anymore value or credence. Cyber relationships have the illusion of intimacy, sometimes with the absence of intimacy. Is it better to have a conversation in a café or on the telephone?”

WorldGivingMadeSometimesBigsUsedValuesAdventureConversationIllusionTransformationAssumingProfoundScaredAbsenceIntimacyTelephonesGalaxyUnderwearCyberCredence
Author:Tom Waits
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“There are 500 reasons I write for children.... Children read books, not reviews. They don't give a hoot about the critics.... They don't read to free themselves of guilt, to quench their thirst for rebellion, or to get rid of alienation. They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff.... They don't expect their beloved writer to redeem humanity. Young as they are, they know that it is not in his power. Only the adults have such childish illusions.”

KnowsGivingWritingBelieveChildrenStillsBookReasonYoungHumanityStuffIllusionDevilAdultsAngelLogicGuiltCriticsClarityBelovedRebellionBelieve In GodReviewsWitchThirstAlienationObsoletePunctuationQuenchGoblinHoot
Author:Isaac Bashevis Singer
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“...I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire...I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.”

MenGivingTryingMaySaidMomentsMightRememberDesireForgetFieldsFoolVictoryBattleDespairIllusionBreathsPhilosopherConquerFollyNow And ThenForget ItFuryMausoleum
Author:William Faulkner
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“Now the same mystery which often veils from our eyes the reason for a catastrophe envelops just as frequently, when love is in question, the suddenness of certain happy solutions, such as had been brought to me by Gilberte's letter. Happy, or at least seemingly happy, for there are few that can really be happy when we are dealing with a sentiment of such a kind that any satisfaction we can give it does no more, as a rule, than dislodge some pain. And yet sometimes a respite is granted us, and we have for a little while the illusion of being healed.”

GivingKindLittlesDoeSometimesReasonEyePainCertainLove IsMysterySolutionsIllusionLettersSatisfactionGrantedSentimentsCatastropheVeilsHealedRespite
Book:Remembrance of Things Past: Swann's way. Within a budding grove
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“Faith and feelings are the warm marrow of evil. Unlike reason, faith and feelings provide no boundary to limit any delusion, any whim. They are virulent poison, giving the numbing illusion of moral sanction to every depravity ever hatched. Faith and feelings are the darkness to reason’s light. Reason is the very substance of truth itself. The glory that is life is wholly embraced through reason. In rejecting it, in rejecting reason, one embraces death.”

GivingReasonFeelingsLightLife IsEvilMoralDarknessLimitsGloryIllusionEmbraceWarmBoundariesSubstancePoisonDelusionSanctionsWhimRejectingDepravityMarrowNo BoundariesNumbing
Book:Faith of the Fallen
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“You’ll join me sooner than you know in a place with . . . no illusions, where the truth is the only architecture, the only color, the only sound--where that which we sense merely on occasion, and which takes us up and gives us the rare and beautiful glimpses of the things we truly love, flows in deep rivers and tumbles about like clouds in the sky.”

KnowsGivingBeautifulSoundSkyColorTruth IsIllusionFlowRiversCloudsArchitectureOccasionsGlimpse
Author:Mark Helprin
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“Our conscious motivations, ideas, and beliefs are a blend of false information, biases, irrational passions, rationalizations, prejudices, in which morsels of truth swim around and give the reassurance albeit false, that the whole mixture is real and true. The thinking processes attempt to organize this whole cesspool of illusions according to the laws of plausibility. This level of consciousness is supposed to reflect reality; it is the map we use for organizing our life.”

ThinkingGivingIdeasRealWholeUseRealityLawMotivationPassionBeliefProcessLevelsConsciousnessOur LivesInformationIllusionConsciousPrejudiceMapsSwimIrrationalOrganizeMixturesReassuranceThinking Process
Author:Erich Fromm
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“I see many people die because they judge that life is not worth living. I see others paradoxically getting killed for the ideas or illusions that give them a reason for living (what is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying). I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions.”

PeopleGivingIdeasReasonLife IsDiesDyingJudgingIllusionExcellentMeaning Of LifeThriveUrgentWorth LivingSisyphusLife Is Not Worth LivingMyth Of Sisyphus
Book:The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays
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“I nothing had, and yet enough for youth--Joy in Illusion, ardent thirst for Truth. Give unrestrained, the old emotion, The bliss that touched the verge of pain, The strength of Hate, Love's deep devotion,--O, give me back my youth again!”

GivingEnoughPainJoyHateEmotionYouthIllusionGive MeDevotionBlissTouchedThirstLove HateVergeArdent
Book:Faust in Plain and Simple English: First Part of the Tragedy: (A Modern Translation and the Original Version): BookCaps Study Guide
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“The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.”

PeopleGivingRealConditionsTearsDemandGiving UpIllusionCriticismSighAbolitionIllusoryOpiumEmbryosHalosReal HappinessOpiatesSoullessCriticism Of Religion
Book:Early Writings
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“She wasn't, nor ever had been, under the illusion that marriage was a relationship characterized by endless bliss and romance. Throw any two people together, add the inevitable ups and downs, give the mixture a vigorous stir, and a few stormy arguments were inevitable, no matter how the couple loved each other.”

PeopleGivingTwoMatterTogetherRomanceCoupleIllusionArgumentAddEndlessInevitableBlissMixturesUps & DownsVigorousStormyBest Of Me
Author:Nicholas Sparks
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“For what we suppose to be our love or our jealousy is never a single, continuous and indivisible passion. It is composed of an infinity of successive loves, of different jealousies, each of which is ephemeral, although by their uninterrupted multiplicity they give us the impression of continuity, the illusion of unity.”

GivingDifferentPassionIllusionUnityImpressionInfinityOur LoveContinuityEphemeralMultiplicityIndivisible
Book:Remembrance of Things Past: Swann's Way & Within a Budding Grove
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“Giving importance to what we think because we thought it, taking our own selves not only (to quote the Greek philosopher) as the measure of all things but as their norm or standard, we create in ourselves, if not an interpretation, at least a criticism of the universe, which we don't even know and therefore cannot criticize. The giddiest, most weak-minded of us then promote that criticism to an interpretation that's superimposed, like a hallucination; induced rather than deduced. It's a hallucination in the strict sense, being an illusion based on something only dimly seen.”

IfsThinkingKnowsGivingSelfUniverseStandardsIllusionAll ThingsCriticismWeakImportancePhilosopherGreekInterpretationCriticizeStrictNormHallucinationsGreek Philosopher
Book:The Education of the Stoic: The Only Manuscript of the Baron of Teive
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“The life of West, Nietzsche said, is based on Christianity. The values of the West are based on Christianity. Some of these values seem to have taken a life of their own, and this gives us the illusion that we can get rid of Christianity and keep the values. This, Nietzsche says, is an illusion...Remove the Christian foundation, and the values must go too.”

GivingSaidSeemsChristianValuesChristianityTakenIllusionFoundationWestRemove
Book:What's So Great About Christianity
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“This is what you do now to give your day topography--scan the boxes, read the news, see the chain of your friends reporting about themselves, take the 140-character expository bursts and sift through for the information you need. It's a highly deceptive world, one that constantly asks you to comment but doesn't really care what you have to say. The illusion of participation can sometimes lead to participation. But more often than not, it only leads to more illusion, dressed in the guise of reality.”

WorldNeedsGivingSometimesCharacterRealityCareAsksInformationNewsIllusionBoxesChainsCommentParticipationDeceptiveGuise140 CharacterTopography
Author:David Levithan
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“He who does not realize to what extent shifting fortune and necessity hold in subjection every human spirit, cannot regard as fellow-creatures nor love as he loves himself those whom chance separated from him by an abyss. The variety of constraints pressing upon man give rise to the illusion of several distinct species that cannot communicate. Only he who has measured the dominion of force, and knows how not to respect it, is capable of love and justice.”

KnowsMenLifeGivingHumansDoeSpiritForceRealizingJusticeChanceKnow HowCreaturesCapableIllusionRegardFellowsFortuneSpeciesCommunicateVarietyAbyssHuman SpiritShiftingConstraintsDominionSubjection
Book:War and the Iliad
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“Therefore, philosophy does not give sense in mind happiness. It keeps in mind the only truth. However, it is very possible that the truth may be painful, may be distressing, may be destructive of happiness or makes it impossible. Religion, unlike philosophy, is under the category of the useful one. It promises happiness and says what it is necessary to do and what it is necessary to be to deserve or to obtain it. Consequently, illusion is more important than truth if it gets happiness.”

IfsGivingMindMayDoeImportantPhilosophyTruthImpossiblePromiseIllusionDeservePainfulDestructiveCategoriesDistressing
Author:Marcel Conche
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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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“There are no perfect human beings! Persons can be found who are good, very good indeed, in fact, great. There do in fact exist creators, seers, sages, saints, shakers, and movers...even if they are uncommon and do not come by the dozen. And yet these very same people can at times be boring, irritating, petulant, selfish, angry, or depressed. To avoid disillusionment with human nature, we must first give up our illusions about it.”

PeopleIfsGivingFirstsHumansPersonsFactsFoundHuman BeingsPerfectHuman NatureGiving UpIllusionPerfectionAngryVery GoodSaintCreatorBoringSelfishDozenSageUncommonDisillusionmentIrritatingSeersShakers
Author:Abraham Maslow
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“Do you want a sign that you're asleep? Here it is: you're suffering. Suffering is a sign that you're out of touch with the truth. Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth, that you might understand that there's falsehood somewhere, just as physical pain is given to you so you will understand that there is disease or illness somewhere. Suffering occurs when you clash with reality. When your illusions clash with reality, when your falsehoods clash with truth, then you have suffering. Otherwise there is no suffering.”

WantInspirationalGivingRealityMightEyePainSufferingGivenDiseaseIllusionIllnessFalsehoodClashPhysical Pain
Author:Anthony de Mello
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“I wish that one would be persuaded that psychological experiments, especially those on the complex functions, are not improved [by large studies]; the statistical method gives only mediocre results; some recent examples demonstrate that. The American authors, who love to do things big, often publish experiments that have been conducted on hundreds and thousands of people; they instinctively obey the prejudice that the persuasiveness of a work is proportional to the number of observations. This is only an illusion.”

PeopleGivingHas BeensBigsWould BeScienceWishResultsNumbersStudyExampleIllusionFunctionPrejudiceMethodComplexesExperimentsPsychologicalObservationMediocrePublishAmerican Author
Author:Alfred Binet
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“The true wisdom of the philosopher ought to insist in enjoying everything. Yet we apply ourselves to dissecting and destroying everything that is good in itself, that has virtue, albeit the virtue there is in mere illusions. Nature gives us this life like a toy to a weak child. We want to see how it all works; we break everything. There remains in our hands, and before our eyes, stupid and opened too late, the sterile wreckage, fragments that will not again make a whole. The good is so simple.”

WantGivingChildrenWholeHandsEyeEnjoyNatureSimpleBreakVirtueStupidOughtLateIllusionWeakRemainsMerePhilosopherThis LifeToo LateDestroyingToysFragmentsWreckageTrue WisdomDissectingDestroying Everything
Author:Eugene Delacroix
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“Success on a cosmic level completely eludes me. I'm deeply suspicious of things being too good. It's part of my superstition, I think, to generate pain in order to give the illusion of gain. I'm not saying I reject success, but honestly, I don't quite know how to deal with it. It's an old feeling: As soon as you have the thing you've been going after all your life, that reasonable degree of security, you start kicking against it, doubting it.”

ThinkingKnowsGivingFeelingsPainSuccessOrderLevelsDealsKnow HowDoubtSecurityDegreesIllusionGainsHonestlyReasonableRejectsCosmicSuperstitionsSuspiciousKickingEludeOld Feelings
Author:Hugh Laurie
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“It helps to resign as the controller of your fate. All that energy we expend to keep things running right is not what's keeping things running right. We're bugs struggling in the river, brightly visible to the trout below. With that fact in mind, people like me make up all these rules to give us the illusion that we are in charge. I need to say to myself, they're not needed, hon. Just take in the buggy pleasures. Be kind to the others, grab the fleck of riverweed, notice how beautifully your bug legs scull.”

PeopleInspirationalNeedsGivingMindKindFactsHelpingRunningEnergyPleasureStruggleFateNeededIllusionRiversLegsLike MeVisibleBe KindBugsTroutControllers
Author:Anne Lamott
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“The master and the student on the journey to mastery, knows that the illusions are the illusions, decides why they are there, and then consciously creates what will be experienced next within the self through the illusions. When facing any life experience, there is a formula, a process, through which you may choose to move through mastery. Simply make the following statements: One, nothing in my world is real. Two, The meaning of everything is the meaning I give it. Three, I am who I say I am, and my experience is what I say it is. This is how to work with the illusions of life.”

KnowsWorldLifeGivingMayTwoRealSelfMovingThreeNextProcessJourneyStudentsMastersIllusionFollowingStatementsFormulasMasteryLife ExperienceIllusions Of Life
Author:Neale Donald Walsch
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“'Tis folly in one Nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its Independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favours and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from Nation to Nation. 'Tis an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.”

GivingLooksMayRealCharacterGivenNationsPayAcceptingGreaterConditionsPolicyAcceptancePrideOughtIllusionIndependenceErrorsFavorsCuresFollyPortionsForeign PolicyFavourIngratitudeDisinterestedFarewell Address
Book:The Political Economy of the American Revolution
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“Do what you love. Love what you do. Take less. Give more. Never quit. Never follow. Be passionate. Be bold. Be honest. Respect people. Respect the environment. Always bring out the best in your family and friends. Change is the only constant. Fear is an illusion. Attitude is everything.”

PeopleGivingAttitudeEnvironmentHonestIllusionConstantPassionateQuittingBeing HonestOur FamilyFamily And FriendsNever QuitWhat You LoveAttitude Is EverythingRespect People
Author:Sonnie Trotter
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