Illusion Quotes

Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.[Illusionen empfehlen sich uns dadurch, daß sie Unlustgefühle ersparen und uns an ihrer Statt Befriedigungen genießen lassen. Wir müssen es dann ohne Klage hin- nehmen, daß sie irgend einmal mit einem Stücke der Wirklichkeit zusammenstoßen, an dem sie zerschellen.]

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.[L’illusion est le premier plaisir.]

I have no illusions concerning the precarious status of my tales, and do not expect to become a serious competitor of my favourite weird authors.

I am growing up. I am losing some illusions, perhaps to acquire others.

How strange that a girl could trouble your inmost soul so long as she kept her mouth shut, and that the moment she spoke the glamour could vanish as though it had never been.

Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion.[Tout est bien aujourd’hui, voilà l’illusion.]

Everybody is very much alike, really. But fortunately, perhaps, they don’t realise it.

Every generation had its weaklings – that that was one of the penalties of greatness – but that their failings were seldom remembered by posterity.

Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to illusion.

Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist but you have ceased to live.

Castles in the air – they are so easy to take refuge in. And so easy to build, too.[Luftslotte, – de er så nemme at ty ind i, de. Og nemme at bygge også.]

Can any thing be imagined so ridiculous, that this miserable and wretched creature, who is not so much as master of himself, but subject to the injuries of all things, should call himself master and emperor of the world, of which he has not power to know the least part, much less to command the whole![Est-il possible d’imaginer rien de si ridicule que cette misérable et chétive créature qui n’est seulement pas maîtresse d’elle-même, est exposée aux offenses de tant de choses et qui vient se dire la maîtresse et l’impératrice de l’univers? il n’est pas en son pouvoir d’en connaître la moindre parcelle, à plus forte raison de le commander.]