Illusion Quotes - Page 12

• There was pain, but there was also joy. It was in the tension between the two that life happened. Imperfect as it was, this world was real. Illusion was no substitute. I'd rather live a hard life of fact than a sweet life of lies.

  Karen Marie Moning

  Sweet, Pain, Real

  Karen Marie Moning (2016). “The Fever Series 7-Book Bundle: Darkfever, Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever, Shadowfever, Iced, Burned”, p.1384, Dell

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• The sky is like a monochromatic contemporay painting, drawing me in its illusion of depth, pulling me up.

  John Green

  Sky, Drawing, Depth

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• But, as Einstein once said, “For we convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent.”5

  Brian Greene

  Past, Said, Distinction

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• So now I'm going back again I got to get her somehow All the people we used to know They're an illusion to me now Some are mathematicians Some are carpenter's wives Don't know how it all got started I don't what they're doing with their lives But me I'm still on the road Heading for another joint We always did feel the same We just saw it from a different point of view Tangled up in Blue.

  Bob Dylan

  Blue, Views, Wife

  Song: Tangled Up in Blue

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• As I've said, freedom is really an illusion. Anytime we think we have a real choice, it just means we haven't seen the shotgun aimed at our navel.

  Jeff Lindsay

  Real, Mean, Thinking

  Jeff Lindsay (2010). “Dexter Is Delicious: Dexter Morgan (5)”, p.387, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

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• Making reality real is art's responsibility. It is a practical assignment, then, a self-assignment: to achieve, by a cultivated sensitivity for observing life, a capacity for receiving impressions, a lonely, unremitting, unaided, unaidable vision, and transferring this vision without distortion to it onto the pages of a novel, where, if the reader is so persuaded, it will turn into the reader's illusion.

  Eudora Welty

  Lonely, Art, Real

  Eudora Welty (2011). “On Writing”, p.53, Modern Library

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• When you want to take over a city, you have to destroy the illusion of safety it provides. You have to hit the large well-protected establishments, find the powerful people who run them and are viewed as invincible, and kill them. You want to destroy the morale first. Once the people's resolve is gone and everyone is scared for their own skin, the city is yours.

  Ilona Andrews

  Running, Powerful, Cities

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• There is no coincidence. Only the illusion of coincidence.

  Alan Moore

  Coincidence

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• But what is the past? Could it be, the firmness of the past is just illusion? Could the past be a kaleidoscope, a pattern of images that shift with each disturbance of a sudden breeze, a laugh, a thought? And if the shift is everywhere, how would we know?

  Alan Lightman

  Past, Laughing, Patterns

  Alan Lightman (2011). “Einstein's Dreams”, p.102, Vintage

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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.

  A. Lee Martinez

  Believe, Simple, Desire

  A. Lee Martinez (2007). “In the Company of Ogres”, p.133, Macmillan

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• The ‘equilibrium’ that people see in me is really an illusion. I am as flawed as anyone. It’s only that I seem to have the knack of hiding.

  Erich Segal

  People, Knack, Hiding

  Erich Segal (2015). “Doctors: A Novel”, p.424, Bantam

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• I looked across the river to Manhattan. It was a great view. When Sadie and I had first arrived at Brooklyn House, Amos had told us that magicians tried to stay out of Manhattan. He said Manhattan had other problems--whatever that meant. And sometimes when I looked across the water, I could swear I was seeing things. Sadie laughed about it, but once I thought I saw a flying horse. Probably just the mansion's magic barriers causing optical illusions, but still, it was weird.

  Rick Riordan

  Horse, Views, Rivers

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• There are moments when a kind of clarity comes over you, and suddenly you can see through walls to another dimension that you'd forgotten or chosen to ignore in order to continue living with the various illusions that make life, particularily life with other people, possible.

  Nicole Krauss

  Wall, Order, People

  Nicole Krauss (2011). “Great House”, p.19, Penguin UK

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• Each of us, I suppose needs his illusions. Life after death. A maker of planets. A woman to love, a man to hate. Something sacred. But what a waste.

  Tim O'Brien

  Hate, Men, Needs

  Tim O'Brien (2011). “Tomcat in Love”, p.319, Broadway Books

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• A man’s greatest treasures are his illusions - Durzo Blint

  Brent Weeks

  Men, Greatest Treasure, Dark Humor

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• That's the question: is truth an illusion, or is illusion truth, or are they essentially the same? Myself, I don't care what anybody says about me as long as it isn't true.

  Truman Capote

  Long, Care, I Don't Care

  Truman Capote (2012). “Answered Prayes”, p.40, Vintage

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• What if there were no grownups? Suppose the whole idea of grownups was an illusion? What if their money was really just playground marbles, their business deals no more than baseball-card trades, their wars only games of guns in the park? What if they were all still snotty-nosed kids inside their suits and dresses? Christ, that couldn't be, could it? It was too horrible to think about.

  Stephen King

  Baseball, War, Kids

  Stephen King (1999). “Hearts In Atlantis”, p.162, Simon and Schuster

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• The straight line, a respectable optical illusion which ruins many a man.

  Victor Hugo

  Men, Lines, Optical Illusions

  Victor Hugo (2010). “The Works of Victor Hugo”, p.1969, BookCaps Study Guides

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• Mothers support certain illusions about their children, and one of my illusions was that I liked who I was, because she did. When she passed away, so did that idea.

  Mitch Albom

  Mother, Children, Ideas

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• Language can't describe reality. Literature has no stable reference, no real meaning. Each reader's interpretation is equally valid, more important than the author's intention. In fact, nothing in life has meaning. Reality is subjective. Values and truths are subjective. Life itself is a kind of illusion. Blah, blah, blah, let's have another scotch.

  Dean Koontz

  Real, Scotch, Important

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• You must not look in that mirror at your doughy legs and flat feet, for today is about dreams and illusions, and unfiltered natural daylight is the enemy of dreams.

  Tina Fey

  Dream, Witty, Mirrors

  Tina Fey (2011). “Bossypants”, p.77, Hachette UK

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• When you have indulged a lust, your wing drops off; you become lame, abandoned by a fantasy. …People fancy they are enjoying themselves, but they are really tearing out their wings for the sake of an illusion.

  Rumi

  Spiritual, Wings, People

  Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (Maulana), Jelaluddin Rumi, Kabir Helminski, Andrew Harvey (2005). “The Rumi Collection: An Anthology of Translations of Mevlâna Jalâluddin Rumi”, p.20, Shambhala Publications

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• Read day and night, devour books - these sleeping pills - not to know but to forget! Through books you can retrace your way back to the origins of spleen, discarding history and its illusions.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Book, Sleep, Night

  "Tears and Saints". Book by Emile M. Cioran, 1937.

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• Deep breaths. I am taking deep breaths. Composure. Which, for me, means composing... Maybe this is my way of creating the illusion of control over something I have no control over. Like, if it's just a story I'm telling or a song I'm singing, then I'll be okay because I'm the guy who's providing the words.

  David Levithan

  Song, Mean, Creating

  Rachel Cohn, David Levithan (2007). “Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist”, p.133, Knopf Books for Young Readers

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• I know,” said Peter. “Perhaps better than anyone. But you can’t stay a child forever. To choose to speak into Echo’s Well is to choose illusion. To choose to avoid the responsibilities of being an adult. The real trick—the real choice—is to keep the best of the child you were, without forgetting when you grow up. “It is the best of both worlds, Jack. Being a child is to believe in magic everywhere… “…but even Peter Pan had to grow up one day.

  James A. Owen

  Children, Growing Up, Real

  James A. Owen (2015). “Dawn of the Dragons: Here, There Be Dragons; The Search for the Red Dragon”, p.654, Simon and Schuster

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