Magic

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One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word. ~ Robert A. Heinlein

Quotes about various forms of Magic

Contents

[edit] Sourced

  • The notion that poetry is a kind of magic and that the poet knows secrets and has powers not shared by other men is deeply rooted in the human race.
  • Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will themselves not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die.
    • Daniel Burnham, as quoted in Daniel H. Burnham, Architect, Planner of Cities (1921) by Charles Moore
  • Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
  • Suppose you went to any scientist up to the late nineteenth century and told him: Here are two peices of a substance called Uranium 235. If you hold them apart, nothing will happen. But if you bring them together suddenly, you will liberate as much energy as you could obtain from burning ten thousand tons of coal. No matter how farsighted and imaginative he might be, your pre-twentieth century scientist would have said: "What utter nonsense! That's magic, not science. Such things can't happen in the real world." Around 1890, when the foundations of physics and thermodynamics had (it seemed) been securely laid, he could have told you exactly why it was nonsense. ... The wholly unexpected discovery of uranium fission in 1939 made possible such absurdly simple (in principle, if not in practice) devices as the atomic bomb and the nuclear chain reactor. No scientist could have predicted them; if he had, all his colleagues would have laughed at him.
  • God is alive. Magic is afoot. God is alive. Magic is afoot. God is afoot. Magic is alive. Alive is afoot. Magic never died. God never sickened. Many poor men lied. Many sick men lied. Magic never weakened. Magic never hid. Magic always ruled. God is afoot. God was ruler though his funeral lengthened. Though his mourners thickened Magic never fled...
  • Poetry is a kind of magic, a transfiguration of the world in words which produces an idea of order, even if this order is fictional. Not that it is only fictional ... the only possible ordering of reality is fictional. In this sense, the orderings of reality offered by religion, science, art, psychoanalysis, para-psychology, astrology or whatever are all fictions (not that they are fictions of equal value, which they clearly are not, because they must adhere to reality).
    • Simon Critchley, in Very Little — Almost Nothing : Death, Philosophy, Literature (2004), p. 232
  • My former work has been misunderstood, and its scope limited, by my use of technical terms. It has attracted only too many dilettanti and eccentrics, weaklings seeking in "Magic" an escape from reality. I myself was first consciously drawn to the subject in this way. And it has repelled only too many scientific and practical minds, such as I most designed to influence.
    But
    MAGICK
    is for
    ALL.
  • I must make
    MAGICK
    the essential factor in the life of
    ALL.
    In presenting this book to the world, I must then explain and justify my position by formulating a definition of
    MAGICK
    and setting forth its main principles in such a way that
    ALL
    may understand instantly that their souls, their lives, in every relation with every other human being and every circumstance, depend upon
    MAGICK
    and the right comprehension and right application thereof.
    • Aleister Crowley, in his Introduction to Magick Book IV : Liber ABA, Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929)
  • Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.'
    (Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magickal weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations" — these sentences — in the "magickal language" ie, that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, booksellers and so forth and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of Magick by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my Will.)
    In one sense Magick may be defined as the name given to Science by the vulgar.
    • Aleister Crowley, in his Introduction to Magick Book IV : Liber ABA, Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929)
  • There is a single main definition of the object of all magical Ritual. It is the uniting of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm. The Supreme and Complete Ritual is therefore the Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel; or, in the language of Mysticism, Union with God.
    • Aleister Crowley, in Magick Book IV : Liber ABA, Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929), Ch. 1 : The Principles of Ritual
  • Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.
  • I still believe poetry is a kind of magic.
    • Edward Field, in A Frieze for a Temple of Love (1998), p. 201
  • Science is a way of talking about the universe in words that bind it to a common reality. Magic is a method of talking to the universe in words that it cannot ignore. The two are rarely compatible.
  • Magic is not science, it is a collection of ways to do things — ways that work but often we don't know why.
  • 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. He must be original and quick-witted, never to be taken unawares. He must possess, in no small degree, a knowledge of the exact sciences, and he must spend a lifetime in practice, for in the profession its emoluments come very slowly. All this is discouraging enough, but this is not all. The magician must expect the exposure of his tricks sooner or later, and see what it has required long months of study and time to perfect dissolved in an hour. 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 might instance the mirror illusions of Houdin; the cabinet trick of the Davenport Brothers, and the second sight of Heller — all the baffling puzzles of the days in which the respective magicians mentioned lived. All this is not a pleasant prospective picture for the aspirant for the honors of the magician.
  • That's the thing with magic. You've got to know it's still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible for you.
    • Charles de Lint, in "Ghosts of Wind and Shadow" in Dreams Underfoot : The Newford Collection (2003), p. 183
  • Like legend and myth, magic fades when it is unused — hence all the old tales of elfin Kingdoms moving further and further away from our world, or that magical beings require our faith, our belief in their existence, to survive. ... That is a lie. All they require is our recognition.
  • Poetry is a kind of magic in itself: the Latin word carmen means "poem" as well as "magical chant.
    • Georg Luck, in Arcana Mundi : Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds : A Collection of Ancient Texts (2006), p. 113
  • I suppose that writers should, in a way, feel flattered by the censorship laws. They show a primitive fear and dread at the fearful magic of print.
    • John Mortimer, in Clinging to the Wreckage : A Part of Life (1982), p. 183
  • Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!
  • W. H. Murray in The Scottish Himalaya Expedition (1951); the "Goethe couplet" referred to here is from an extremely loose translation of Faust 214-30 done by John Anster in 1835.
  • Love works magic.
    It is the final purpose
    Of the world story,
    The Amen of the universe.
  • No magic can change something into something that it is not; the imaginative transformation at the heart of magic is recognition, not creation.
  • There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment. ... It gives warmth and good feeling to all your personal relationships.
    • Norman Vincent Peale, as quoted in Spiritual Literacy : Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life (1998) by Frederic Brussat and Mary Ann Brussat
  • A Thaum is the basic unit of magical strength. It has been universally established as the amount of magic needed to create one small white pigeon or three normal-sized billiard balls.
  • Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart. And they both take practice.
    • Nora Roberts, as quoted in Rainbow Bridge Farm (2003) by Lynn Roberson, p. 127
  • Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.
    • Jim Rohn, as quoted in The Quotable Manager : Inspiration for Business and Life‎ (2006) by Joel J. Weiss, p. 238
  • Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.
    • Thomas Szasz, in The Second Sin‎ (1973), "Science and Scientism", p. 115

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  • The power of Thought, the magic of the Mind!
  • One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.
  • If we are to have magical bodies, we must have magical minds.
  • Poetry is a kind of magic that very few can create and even fewer can truly understand and appreciate in all its glory.
  • A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way.
  • Think of the magic of that foot, comparatively small, upon which your whole weight rests. It's a miracle, and the dance is a celebration of that miracle.
  • When you start writing the magic comes when the characters seem to take on a life of their own and write the words for themselves.
  • The great leaders are like the best conductors — they reach beyond the notes to reach the magic in the players.
  • A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before the change.
  • The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him.
  • It's only in innocence you find any kind of magic, any kind of courage.
  • The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?
  • There's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.
  • In a world full of audio visual marvels, may words matter to you and be full of magic.
  • Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.

[edit] Unknown

  • Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    • This has been called "Niven's Law" and attributed to Larry Niven by some, but without any citation of an original source. It is an inversion of the third of Arthur C. Clarke's three laws : "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

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