Illusion Quotes - Page 18

• And I didn't know I loved her till I'd dreamt of her. I didn't know it was the real thing until an illusion had signalled it.

  Graham Swift

  Real, Knows, Real Things

  Graham Swift (2012). “Ever After”, p.267, Pan Macmillan

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• The trick was looking past the illusion, because the exit was never as far away as it seemed.

  Lauren DeStefano

  Past, Exit, Far Away

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• It is the Land of Truth (enchanted name!), surrounded by a wide and stormy ocean, the true home of illusion, where many a fog bank and ice, that soon melts away, tempt us to believe in new lands, while constantly deceiving the adventurous mariner with vain hopes, and involving him in adventures which he can never leave, yet never bring to an end.

  Immanuel Kant

  Believe, Ocean, Home

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• Truth is a mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, anthropomorphisms, in short a sum of human relations which have been subjected to poetic and rhetorical intensification, translation and decoration […]; truths are illusions of which we have forgotten that they are illusions, metaphors which have become worn by frequent use and have lost all sensuous vigour […]. Yet we still do not know where the drive to truth comes from, for so far we have only heard about the obligation to be truthful which society imposes in order to exist" from, "On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense".

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Lying, Army, Order

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• And the more he was irritated by her basic personality, the more he was drawn to her by a harsh, bestial sensuality, illusions of a moment, which ended in hate.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Hate, Personality, Irritated

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• 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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• Also, I had not yet found out about time; I was still under the illusion that I had plenty of time - time for this, time for that, time for everything, time to waste.

  Joseph Mitchell

  Waste, Found, Stills

  Joseph Mitchell (2016). “Joe Gould's Secret”, p.66, Open Road Media

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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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