quotations about magic
By learning and magic a saint may outwit the devil.
POPE SYLVESTER II
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is a strange paradox that a magician pretends to control the destinies of men, but cannot control his own.
JAMES ELLIS
attributed, Day's Collacon
I don't want realism. I want magic!
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
A Streetcar Named Desire
The magic of drama is infinitely more powerful than the magic of trickery. It is as available to the conjurer as it is to the actor. The only difference is that actors take it for granted, whereas few conjurers are even aware that it exists.
HENNING NELMS
Magic and Showmanship
Magic's a nasty game. Go and play with your dad's chainsaw instead.
MIKE CAREY
Hellblazer, No. 175
So you wanna play with magic?
Boy, you should know what you're falling for.
Baby do you dare to do this?
Cause I'm coming at you like a dark horse.
KATY PERRY
"Dark Horse", Prism
Magic is not a practice. It is a living, breathing web of energy that, with our permission, can encase our every action.
DOROTHY MORRISON
Everyday Magic
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.
LEONARD COHEN
"A Long Letter from F."
Magic is a faculty of wonderful virtue, full of most high mysteries, containing the most profound contemplation of most secret things, together with the nature, power, quality, substance and virtues thereof, as also the knowledge of whole Nature, and it doth instruct us concerning the differing and agreement of things amongst themselves, whence it produceth its wonderful effects, by uniting the virtues of things through the application of them one to the other.
HEINRICH CORNELIUS AGRIPPA
Three Books of Occult Philosophy or Magic
Magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the Will.
ALEISTER CROWLEY
The Book of Thoth
Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.
TOM ROBBINS
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
The senior wizard in a world of magic had the same prospects of long-term employment as a pogo stick tester in a minefield.
TERRY PRATCHETT
Moving Pictures
Effective magic is transcendent nature.
GEORGE ELIOT
Middlemarch
It is entirely conceivable that life's splendour forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come. This is the essence of magic, which does not create but summons.
FRANZ KAFKA
journal entry, October 18, 1921
I want to be magic. I want to touch the heart of the world and make it smile. I want to be a friend of elves and live in a tree. Or under a hill. I want to marry a moonbeam and hear the stars sing. I don't want to pretend at magic anymore. I want to be magic.
CHARLES DE LINT
attributed, Creatureton High
Mystery is the basic appeal of magic. Once the secrets are known, the magician becomes a mere manipulator, an actor in a suspense drama which has little impact because the audience knows the ending in advance.
MILBOURNE CHRISTOPHER
Magic: A Picture History
People think magic's a way of transforming reality -- but in the end, you find that all that you've really changed is yourself.
ANDY DIGGLE
Hellblazer, No. 232
We are magic. It is magic that we're walking around. It's fantastic magic. Some people would call it miracles; I like to call it magic.... Yes, I'm very aware of this. Yes, the more aware I get, the more I can understand how big it is, how big it will get. It'll be harder to comprehend; that's why I have to go along with it, 'cause its so vast. To say to somebody that God is everything that lives and ever has lived and ever will live, and you're never going to touch and see, smell and be everything that is God. Magic is very hard to comprehend.
DONOVAN
interview, Rolling Stone, November 9, 1967
If we are to have magical bodies, we must have magical minds.
WAYNE DYER
Real Magic: Creating Miracles in Everyday Life
A magician differs from a witch in this: a witch derives her power from a compact with the devil, whereas a magician, through his skill in the art of magic, doth command infernal spirits, and they obey him.
MACKINTOSH
attributed, Day's Collacon