Magicians Quotes

Without books the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world, ''Lighthouses'' as the poet said ''erected in the sea of time'.' They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind, Books are humanity in print. - Arthur Schopenhauer

What it shows is just how much of the picture in our head of our surroundings is a massive construction, based on expectations, what we think is important, what we normally encounter and so on. And that's what magicians are very good at exploiting. - Richard Wiseman

Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said. - Bible

Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. - Bible

Then came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers: and I told the dream before them; but they did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof. - Bible

So when the truth came to them from Us they said: This is most surely clear enchantment! / Musa said: Do you say (this) of the truth when it has come to you? Is it magic? And the magicians are not successful. - Quran

So the magicians were gathered together at the appointed time on the fixed day, / And it was said to the people: Will you gather together? / Haply we may follow the magicians, if they are the vanquishers. - Quran

Over the last five years, there's been a reawakening as we look at things like change blindness (a failure to see large changes in a visual scene) and at the fact that consciousness is a construction and may even be an illusion. Now there's a recognition that magicians are doing something very special. - Richard Wiseman