Half the work that is done in this world is to make things appear what they are not. – E. R. Beadle
What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments, despair, eternal death. – William Blake
A pleasant illusion is better than a harsh reality. – Christian Nevell Bovee
Pray look better, Sir… those things yonder are no giants, but windmills. – Miguel de Cervantes
Pleasure can be supported by an illusion; but happiness rests upon truth. – Sebastian Roch Nicolas Chamfort
We must select the Illusion which appeals to our temperament and embrace it with passion, if we want to be happy. – Cyril Connolly
It is respectable to have no illusions, and safe, and profitable and dull. – Joseph Conrad
For what we call illusions are often, in truth, a wider vision of past and present realities –a willing movement of a mans soul with the larger sweep of the worlds forces –a movement towards a more assured end than the chances of a single life. – George Eliot
What difference is there, do you think, between those in Platos cave who can only marvel at the shadows and images of various objects, provided they are content and dont know what they miss, and the philosopher who has emerged from the cave and sees the real things? – Desiderius Erasmus
The impression forces itself upon one that men measure by false standards, that everyone seeks power, success, riches for himself, and admires others who attain them, while undervaluing the truly precious thing in life. – Sigmund Freud
Oh, how powerfully the magnet of illusion attracts. – Gutzkow
It appears to me that almost any man may like the spider spin from his own inwards his own airy citadel. – John Keats
Better a dish of illusion and a hearty appetite for life, than a feast of reality and indigestion therewith. – Harry A. Overstreet
We always think every other mans job is easier than our own. The better he does it, the easier it looks. – Eden Phillpotts
The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there. – Yasutani Roshi
A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it. – Bertrand Russell
Disillusion is a natural stage that follows the holding of an illusion. – Susan Shaughnessy
It isnt safe to sit in judgment upon another persons illusion when you are not on the inside. While you are thinking it is a dream, he may be knowing it is a planet. – Mark Twain
Artists use frauds to make human beings seem more wonderful than they really are. Dancers show us human beings who move much more gracefully than human beings really move. Films and books and plays show us people talking much more entertainingly than people. – Kurt Vonnegut
The one person who has more illusions than the dreamer is the man of action. – Oscar Wilde
