Quotes about Illusion

Spiritual Teacher, Author

If you have a strong ego [and] something good happens to an acquaintance of yours, [it] makes you feel bad. It's called envy. ... The ego thinks something has been taken away from you because somebody else has received something good. It's a complete illusion, but that's the madness of the ego.

Ego - Envy - Feelings - Illusion - Madness - Strength - Taking - Thinking

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Gautama Buddha

Monk, Sage, Philosopher, Teacher, Religious Leader

When one sees that everything exists as an illusion, one can live in a higher sphere than ordinary man.

Illusion - Man - Ordinary

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John F. Kennedy

Former President of the United States

I'm an idealist without illusions.

Idealism - Illusion

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Socrates

Musician, Philosopher, Philosopher

A system of morality that is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception that has nothing sound in it and nothing true.

Emotions - Ethics - Illusion - Morals - Relatives - Sound - Value - Vulgarity

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Emile M. Cioran

Philosopher

For you who no longer possess it, freedom is everything, for us who do, it is merely an illusion.

Illusion

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Pope John Paul II

Clergyman, Saint, Priest

Once the truth is denied to human beings, it is pure illusion to try to set them free. Truth and freedom either go together hand in hand or together they perish in misery.

Freedom - Human - Illusion - Misery - Pure - Together - Trial

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Carl Sagan

Astronomer, Cosmologist, Astrophysicist, Astrobiologist

Our perceptions are fallible. We sometimes see what isn't there. We are prey to optical illusions. Occasionally we hallucinate. We are error-prone.

Failing - Illusion - Mistake - Perception - Sometimes

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Eckhart Tolle

Spiritual Teacher, Author

Empathy with someone else's pain or lack and a desire to help need to be balanced with a deeper realization of the eternal nature of all life and the illusion of all pain. Then let your peace flow into whatever you do, and you will be working on the levels of effect and cause simultaneously.

Balance - Effectiveness - Empathy - Eternity - Flow - Help - Illusion - Pain - Realization

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Ayn Rand

Writer, Philosopher

What you think is an illusion created by your glands, your emotions and, in the last analysis, by the content of your stomach. That gray matter you're so proud of is like a mirror in an amusement park which transmits to you nothing but distorted signals from reality forever beyond your grasp.

Amusement - Analysis - Emotions - Illusion - Parks - Reality - Thinking

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Swami Vivekananda

Philosopher, Clergyman, Author

Realize all this as illusion, realize that within the illusion is the Real.

Illusion - Real - Realization

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Adyashanti

Spiritual Teacher, Author

When someone tells you, 'I love you,' and then you feel, 'Oh, I must be worthy after all,' that's an illusion. That's not true. Or someone says, 'I hate you,' and you think, 'Oh, God, I knew it; I'm not very worthy,' that's not true either. Neither one of these thoughts hold any intrinsic reality. They are an overlay. When someone says, 'I love you,' he is telling you about himself, not you. When someone says, 'I hate you,' she is telling you about herself, not you. World views are self views-literally.

Feelings - Hate - Illusion - Oneself - Reality - Thinking - Views - World - Worth

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Karl Marx

Philosopher, Economist, Political Theorist, Social Revolutionary

Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.

Illusion - Man - Movement - Sense

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Bertrand Russell

Philosopher, Writer, Activist

The opposition of instinct and reason is mainly illusory. Instinct, intuition, or insight is what first leads to the beliefs which subsequent reason confirms or confutes; but the confirmation, where it is possible, consists, in the last analysis, of agreement with other beliefs no less instinctive. Reason is a harmonizing, controlling force rather than a creative one. Even in the most purely logical realms, it is insight that first arrives at what is new.

Creativity - Illusion

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Rumi

Actress, Poet, Poet

Allah made the illusion look real and the real an illusion. He concealed the sea and made the foam visible, the wind invisible, and the dust manifest. you see the dust whirling, but how can the dust rise by itself? you see the foam, but not the ocean. invoke Him with deeds, not words; for deeds are real and will save you in the infinite-life.

Conceal - Illusion - Islam - Making - Manifestation - Real - Sea - Wisdom

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Erwin Rommel

Military Commander, Military Theorist

Manstein is a man of illusions. ... He believes Hitler will listen to facts.

Belief - Facts - Illusion - Man

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Eckhart Tolle

Spiritual Teacher, Author

All problems are illusions of the mind.

Illusion - Meditation - Mindset - Problem

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Honore de Balzac

Artist, Novelist, Novelist

All happiness depends on courage and work. I have had many periods of wretchedness, but with energy and above all with illusions, I pulled through them all.

Dependence - Energy - Illusion

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Alain de Botton

Philosopher, Author

Symons remarked that the most common and unhelpful illusion plaguing those who came to see him was the idea that they ought somehow, in the normal course of events, to have intuited long before they had finished their degrees, started families, bought houses and risen to the top of law firms - what they should properly be doing with their lives. They were tormented by a residual notion of having through some error or stupidity on their part missed out on their true calling.

Calling - Events - Finishing - Illusion - Law - Normal - Notions - Stupid

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Napoleon Bonaparte

Politician, Leader, Military Commander

To a father who loves his children victor has no charms. When the heart speaks, glory itself is an illusion.

Charm - Children - Father - Glory - Illusion - Speaking

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Abraham Maslow

Psychologist

There are no perfect human beings! Persons can be found who are good, very good indeed, in fact, great. There do in fact exist creators, seers, sages, saints, shakers, and movers...even if they are uncommon and do not come by the dozen. And yet these very same people can at times be boring, irritating, petulant, selfish, angry, or depressed. To avoid disillusionment with human nature, we must first give up our illusions about it.

Anger - Boredom - Creating - Facts - Finding - Giving - Human - Illusion - People - Perfection - Saints - Selfishness

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