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Illusions Quotes

Browse 165 quotes about Illusions.

Illusions Quotes

“Most of the time, we see only what we want to see, or what others tell us to see, instead of really investigate to see what is really there. We embrace illusions only because we are presented with the illusion that they are embraced by the majority. When in truth, they only become popular because they are pounded at us by the media with such an intensity and high level of repetition that its mere force disguises lies and truths. And like obedient schoolchildren, we do not question their validity and swallow everything up like medicine. Why? Because since the earliest days of our youth, we have been conditioned to accept that the direction of the herd, and authority anywhere — is always right.”

PeopleThinkingWarPhilosophyTruthLyingCulturePoliticsFictionSocietyMankindMediaYouthMoralityAuthorityTrainingIllusionLiesMajorityCorruptionDeceptionProgrammingFree WillWrongSheepRightPopularityThinkPop CultureConditioningMisleadCorruptRight And WrongDeceptiveIllusionsMass MediaFollowMassesIndividualsPopularHerd MentalityMass CultureFollow Your Own PathFree ThinkersQuestion EverythingSociety And CultureHerdDecieveAuthority QuotesDirty PoliticsBad LeadershipMajority ViewFabricationsFraud And ConspiracyMisguideQuestion AuthoritySocial ProblemIndividuals Quotes
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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“In the long run, the pessimism of reactionaries never proves to be justified, but neither does the optimism of revolutionaries. The expansion of human potential that the latter expect from the final, complete liberation of desire never turns out to be the triumph that they expect. Either the liberated desire is channeled into competitive directions that, though enormously creative, are ultimately disappointing, or it simply ends up in sterile conflict and anarchic confusion, with a corresponding increase in the sense of anguish. There is good reason for this. Modern people still fondly imagine that their discomfort and unease is the product of the straight-jacket that religious taboos, cultural prohibitions, and, in our day, even the legal forms of protection guaranteed by the judicial system place upon desire. They think that once this confinement is over, desire will be able to blossom forth; its wonderful innocence will finally be able to bear fruit. None of this comes true.”

DesireIllusionsMimetic
Author:René Girard
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“Conflict forces us to be fully present because it shatters our ego – stripping away all hope of escape or sugar coating. It removes everything that is nonessential to our authentic being; it removes all superficial layers. Conflict is painful because it wakes us up out of our created illusions. And if we lean into it, conflict can be the catalyst to our enlightenment.”

InspirationalWisdomTruthSpiritualGrowthConsciousnessPsychologyHonestyConflictEgoEnlightenmentInner PeaceZenAuthentic SelfConflict ResolutionIllusionsSugarcoating
Author:Alaric Hutchinson
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“Whatever some people might say, it seems to me that a world in which I can fly, bend space and time, and meet with people who have been dead for years, deserves more consideration than it gets. If I weigh the waking world on one side of the scale and the dream world on the other, which one is more substantial? Doesn’t a world of endless possibilities seem more likely to contain the whole of our lives than the fraction of the world that we call real?”

PhilosophySpiritualityLife QuotesDreamsSelf AwarenessIllusionsDream QuotesMetaphysical QuotesWhat Is Real
Book:Painted Oxen
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“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.”

WomenFeminismExpectationsEmpowermentGenderHypocrisyMisogynyStereotypesIllusionsDouble StandardsClichésMisconceptionsFalse Belief
Book:Shirley
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“They were tough and sour, but as Pushkin said, 'Dearer to us than a host of truths is an exalting illusion.' I saw a happy man, whose cherished dream had so obviously come true, who had attained his goal in life, had gotten what he wanted, who was content with his fate and with himself. For some reason there had always been something sad mixed with my thoughts about human happiness, but now, at the sight of a happy man, I was overcome by an oppressive feeling close to despair. - Gooseberries”

HappinessDespairAttainmentIllusions
Book:Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov
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“There’s no such thing as a good or bad person: there are just people who have each been or seem to have been good or bad to you, someone, or some people, thus far.”

CharacterHumorActionQuotesHumourPersonalityGoodnessIllusionQuoteGoodImpressionMaskSatireGood PeopleAphorismActionsImpressQuotationsBadGood PersonAphorismsBad PeopleCharactersFacadeIllusionsQuotationMasksBadnessConcealmentPersonalitiesImpressionsBad PersonFacadesConceal
Author:Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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“The only reason I am inside the Palace of Illusions is that I am afraid of being declared insane. I know it is all fake. I know everyone is conspiring against me (everyone in this simulation). And I still can’t get out. It’s like a man speeding his bike towards the edge. He knows his future. Yet he can’t make a turn, for he has a stunt to perform for others to watch. This condition is subdued insanity. When you know you are not sane, yet have to act like everything is all right with the world you live in. It is insanity deferred. Insanity postponed. Only to haunt you all the time. An undercurrent. Not manifested in totality.”

PeopleWorldLife LessonsInsaneInsanityPeople QuotesMental Health QuotesIllusionsInsane World
Book:The Meaninglessness of Meaning
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“Most of the time, we see only what we want to see, or what others tell us to see, instead of really investigate to see what is really there. We embrace illusions only because we are presented with the illusion that they are embraced by the majority. When in truth, they only become popular because they are pounded at us by the media with such an intensity and high level of repetition that its mere force disguises lies and truths. And like obedient schoolchildren, we do not question their validity and swallow everything up like medicine. Why? Because since the earliest days of our youth, we have been conditioned to accept that the direction of the herd, and that authority anywhere, is always right.”

GovernmentTruthPoliticsMediaLiesCorruptionMisinformationSuzy KassemIllusionsHerd Mentality
Author:Suzy Kassem
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“Well, I know a guy, he's from far far away He's a songwriter, he got something to say He says, "People in this city are too busy to hang out This town's so spread out, no one would hear you if you shout" Everyone's got a script to sell and someplace else they want to be There's always a lock that would open if you could just find the key" (It Ain't Easy Being Green)”

DreamsHollywoodLos AngelesSelf DeceptionMusic IndustryIllusionsHopesSouthern CaliforniaMovie Industry
Author:Shannon McNally
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“Enlightenment is not about attaining an ultimate level of intelligence or intellect. It is regained by shedding all the ideas, illusion and binds thrust on you and that you then so readily accrue.”

IdeasWisdomInspirational QuotesLife LessonsSpaceMotivational QuotesConsciousnessSilenceLetting GoMindfulnessThoughtsEnlightenmentConceptsSimplicityIntelligenceInsightMindsetInner PeaceHuman ConditionEnlightenment QuotesRasheed Ogunlaru QuotesIllusionsRasheed OgunlaruThoughtlessness
Author:Rasheed Ogunlaru
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“All spiritual techniques seek to awaken fallen man from the dream in which he lives : he dreams continuously of individual state of being, and of the many forms through which the external world presents itself to him; he builds for himself a paradise of illusions, so as to forget the absence of God. To recover the vision of the spiritual world, the soul of man must "die" to this dream, this ceaseless flow of images which fallen man regards as normal, everyday state of his consciousness.”

SoulSpiritualEgoManIndividualismIllusionsFallen Man
Book:Science and Civilization in Islam
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“For me, as an Inner Alchemist, there is no body and soul; the body and the soul are one indivisible thing. The soul then IS the body in a certain vibrational range. As such, there is no Out There or In Here for an Alchemist. Duality and separation are a good way to teach at first, they help to create demarcations that can certainly help to maintain a type of sanity in a young mind, but they are illusions that must be left behind as the intellect grows.”

SoulBodyAwarenessIntellectDualityIllusionsOut There
Book:The Way of the Projectionist: Alchemy’s Secret Formula to Altered States and Breaking the Prison of the Flesh
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“...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.”

Human NatureIllusions
Book:Collected Short Stories: Volume 4
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“There are two paths of which one may choose in the walk of life; one we are born with, and the one we consciously blaze. One is naturally true, while the other is a perceptive illusion. Choose wisely at each fork in the road.”

LifeWisdomTruthQuotesNaturalConsciousnessPathPerceptionChoiceIllusions
Book:From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph over Death and Conscious Encounters With the Divine Presence
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“The "Mona Lisa" is an optical illusion created by Leonardo Da Vinci. The woman in the painting "The Mona Lisa" doesn't appear to be always smiling. When you look at the mouth you feel she looks sad, melancholic, and hostile. But when you look at the eyes you feel she is happy and cheerful. Leonardo perfected the "sfumato technique," which translated literally from Italian means "vanished or evaporated." He created imperceptible transitions between light and shade, and sometimes between colors. "Why the Silhouette?" appears as a simple story of a few individuals, but when you look at it from a distance, it appears to show you the philosophy of life. I have tried to create imperceptible transitions between light and darkness and sometimes between colors. Hope you see the illusion in "Why the Silhouette?”

NovelLife PhilosophyLight And DarknessIllusionsMona LisaLeonardo Da VinciHappiness And SadnessArt LoveOptical IllusionSilhouette
Book:Why the Silhouette?
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“But a man must live. Not for nothing do we invest so much of ourselves in other people's lives—or even in momentary pictures of people we do not know. It cuts both ways: the happy group inside the lighted window, the figure in long grass in the orchard seen from the train stay and support us in our dark hours. Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that we live, if we do.”

ArtLivingEmotionsIllusionsOther PeopleElizabeth BowenThe Death Of The Heart
Book:The Death Of The Heart
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“The first time I saw you were mine, It was a late evening such as this. …and your smile was equally divine, and you've held our future in your fist. And your grip was, so overly tight, For a moment, rather crushed then held, Like a rose. When your words took flight, Fragrance fell - right beside my bed. It bled out. Like all things forsaken, With a knife, like everything so dear - At once ripped. Like the vows we've taken, Forgotten, began to disappear. Disillusioned. Isn't it so funny? Illusions take most space in our hearts. Your smile - it's like milk and honey, And poetry... Poetry is art.”

LoveRomancePoetryRelationshipRegretIllusions
Author:Aleksandra Ninkovic
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“An ever growing part of our major institutions’ functions is the cultivation and maintenance of three sets of illusions which turn the citizen into a client to be saved by experts...The first enslaving illusion is the idea that people are born to be consumers and that they can attain any of their goals by purchasing goods and services. This illusion is due to an educated blindness to the worth of use-values in the total economy. In none of the economic models serving as national guidelines is there a variable to account for non-marketable use-values any more than there is a variable for nature's perennial contribution.”

EducationEconomicsInstitutionsValueConsumerismAutonomyUsefulnessIllusions
Book:The Right to Useful Unemployment: And Its Professional Enemies
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“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 ).”

LoveTruthPassionFreedomHuman BeingsExistencePerceptionSurvivalPersistenceChoiceFightWinSurvival InstinctWhyIllusionsMatrixWhy We Live
Book:More Matrix and Philosophy: Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded
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“Imagine a movie where the camera is shaking all the time. It would be the worst movie you've ever seen. You could barely focus on anything that's going on and you'd probably walk out in five minutes. Stillness is everything. It’s an opportunity to observe our chaotic mind and allow it to settle down no matter what else is happening around us.”

LoveInspirationSufferingSpiritualityMeditationMindfulnessStillnessSpiritual AwakeningIllusionsLife Vision
Book:Spiritual Words to Live by : 81 Daily Wisdoms and Meditations to Transform Your Life
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“Everybody lives on because life lives on. We're all the same life force energy. And that will go on forever. Life will go on experiencing the universe just as the universe intended.”

SufferingSpiritualityMeditationMindfulnessLiving LifeSpiritual AwakeningIllusionsCircle Of LifeDeath And Dying Quotes
Book:Spiritual Words to Live by : 81 Daily Wisdoms and Meditations to Transform Your Life
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