# Quotes about illusions - Quotes: 15 - Authors: 12 - Broader topic: [Quotes about reality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reality.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2 - JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.json ## Quotes > The soul does not give itself up to despair until it has exhausted all illusions. [Victor Hugo](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo.md) · [Les Miserables](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables.md) · p. 968 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/the-soul-does.md) Topics: [despair](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/despair.md), [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md) > Not seeing people permits us to imagine in them every perfection. [Victor Hugo](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo.md) · [Les Miserables](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables.md) · p. 538 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/not-seeing-people.md) Topics: [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md) > None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe.md) · [Elective Affinities](https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/elective-affinities.md) · p. 397 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/elective-affinities/none-are-more.md) Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md) > Anyone who refuses to struggle with actualities acquires phantoms to struggle against. [Sören Kierkegaard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard.md) · [Either/Or](https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/eitheror.md) · p. 223 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/soren-kierkegaard/eitheror/anyone-who-refuses.md) Topics: [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md) > I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves. [Christopher Hitchens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens.md) · [Hitch 22](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/hitch-22.md) · p. 342 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/hitch-22/i-try-to-deny.md) Topics: [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md) > The beautiful thing about losing your illusions, he thought, was that you got to stop pretending. [James S. A. Corey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey.md) · [Leviathan Wakes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/leviathan-wakes.md) · p. 184 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/leviathan-wakes/the-beautiful-thing.md) Topics: [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md) > Life was briskly and efficiently stripping Quentin of his last delusions about himself, one by one, shucking them off in firm hard jerks like wet clothes, leaving him naked and shivering. [Lev Grossman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman.md) · [The Magician's Land](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians-land.md) · p. 24 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lev-grossman/the-magicians-land/life-was-briskly.md) Topics: [self-knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-knowledge.md), [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md) > Never content just to be, America is also obliged to mean; America signifies, hence its constant and riveting vulnerability to illusion. [Martin Amis](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis.md) · [Visiting Mrs Nabokov And Other Excursions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis/visiting-mrs-nabokov-and-other-excursions.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-amis/visiting-mrs-nabokov-and-other-excursions/never-content-just.md) Topics: [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md), [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md) > I'm like everyone else - I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does. [Paulo Coelho](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho.md) · [The Alchemist](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/the-alchemist.md) · p. 40 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/the-alchemist/im-like-everyone.md) Topics: [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md) > "What you don't understand you can make mean anything." [Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Diary](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/diary.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/diary/what-you-dont.md) Topics: [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md) > And how much did he and the others lost when they had turned their backs on magic? Belief, of course, and there might be some value in belief, although there was, as well, delusion and did a man want to pay for the value of belief in the coinage of delusion? [Clifford D. Simak](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak.md) · [A Choice of Gods](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/a-choice-of-gods.md) · p. 96 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/a-choice-of-gods/and-how-much.md) Topics: [faith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith.md), [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md) > “Once such a strength of illusion is introduced into a world,” said Goffanon, “then it is hard to be rid of it. It will cloud the Mabden minds for many millennia to come. I know that I am right.” [Michael Moorcock](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock.md) · [The Sword and the Stallion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-sword-and-the-stallion.md) · p. 331 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-sword-and-the-stallion/once-such-a-strength.md) Topics: [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md) > Often people fight hardest of all to preserve a delusion. And they will frequently persecute those who challenge that delusion. [Michael Moorcock](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock.md) · [The Dragon in the Sword](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-dragon-in-the-sword.md) · p. 559 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-dragon-in-the-sword/often-people-fight.md) Topics: [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md) > The time has come for the dismantling of fantasies. That is already happening to our universe. Now that we have this one chance of survival we must finally rid ourselves of fantasies and seize that chance! > > For centuries our race has built on false assumptions. If you build a fantasy based on a false assumption and continue to build on such a fantasy, your whole existence becomes a lie which you implant in others who are too lazy or too busy to question its truth. > > In this manner you threaten the very existence of reality, because, by refusing to obey its laws, those laws engulf and destroy you. The human race has for too long been manufacturing convenient fantasies and calling them laws. For ages this was so. Take war, for instance. Politicians assume that something is true, assume that strife is inevitable, and by building on such false assumptions, lo and behold, they create further wars which they have, ostensibly, sought to prevent. > > We have, until now, accepted too many fantasies as being truths, too many truths as fantasies. And we have one last chance to discover the real nature of our existence. I am prepared to take it! [Michael Moorcock](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock.md) · [The Sundered Worlds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-sundered-worlds.md) · p. 229 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-sundered-worlds/the-time-has.md) Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [reality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reality.md), [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md) > I saw that this cataclysm must be an expiation for some barbarous crime of civilisation, some terrible human lie. What the lie was, I had too little knowledge of history to know then. I now know it was our believing that we were fulfilling some end, serving some plan, - that all would come out well in the end, because there was some great plan over all. Instead of the reality. There is no plan. All is hazard. And the only thing that will preserve us is ourselves. [John Fowles](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles.md) · [Daniel Martin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles/daniel-martin.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles/daniel-martin/i-saw-that-this.md) Topics: [chance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance.md), [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2.md)