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The magician depends for the success of his art upon the credulity of the people.

— Alexander Herrmann The Art of Magic (1891)

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Spirituality

More quotes by Alexander Herrmann

The very best illusions of the best magicians of a few years ago are now the common property of traveling showmen at country fairs.

I have not drawn a very rosy picture of the magician. I did not intend to do so. To the novice entering the life and promising himself ease, indolence, and wealth, I should say, "Don't!"

The Art of Magic (1891)

All this is not a pleasant prospective picture for the aspirant for the honors of the magician.

With a scientific cause he must produce a seemingly opposite effect to that warranted by order and system.

The Art of Magic (1891)

A so-called magician, more than a poet, must be born with a peculiar aptitude for the calling. He must first of all possess a mind of contrarieties, quick to grasp the possibilities of seemingly producing the most opposite effects from the most natural causes.

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Reason is Life's sole arbiter, the magic Laby'rinth's single clue:
Worlds lie above, beyond its ken; what crosses it can ne'er be true.

Richard Francis Burton The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)

In imitating the exemplary acts of a god or of a mythic hero, or simply by recounting their adventures, the man of an archaic society detaches himself from profane time and magically re-enters the Great Time, the sacred time.

Mircea Eliade Myths, Dreams and Mysteries (1967)

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

Thomas Jefferson

The superior man loves his soul; the inferior man loves his property.

Confucius

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alexander Herrmann (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.