“There is no magic. There is only knowledge, more or less hidden.”

— Gene Wolfe

Source: Shadow & Claw

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Gene Wolfe 102

American science fiction and fantasy writer 1931–2019

Rudolfo Anaya book Bless Me, Ultima

Source: Bless Me, Ultima

“They overvalue courage forgetting that without knowledge it is only recklessness…Less bluff, more study.”

Epifanio de los Santos (1871–1928) Filipino politician

Philippine Free Press. Manila. April 28, 1928.
ULOL
Context: What I want to impress on our youth is the necessity of thoroughly preparing themselves for their life's work. As a rule they bluff their way through life, pulling plums out of life's pudding by hook or by crook. They seem to hold the notion that knowledge is not essential to great achievements as courage. They overvalue courage forgetting that without knowledge it is only recklessness... Less bluff, more study.

“Factories today are being run less and less by the authority of experience only, and more and more by the authority of figures and facts. The superintendent and manager of long experience and intuitive knowledge only is forced to make room for the younger man, of less experience, perhaps, but who modernizes his work by the jurisdiction of figures alone.”

Clinton Edgar Woods (1863) American engineer

Source: Organizing a factory (1905), p. 1

“Though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of Time.”

Clive Staples Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) Ch. 15: Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time
The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956)

“The benefit of knowledge is that it makes the world more predictable, but the cost is that a predictable world sometimes seems less delicious, less exciting, less poignant.”

Daniel T. Gilbert (1957) American psychologist

Daniel Gilbert, Timothy Wilson, David Centerbar, & Deborah Kermer, The Pleasures of Uncertainty: Prolonging Positive Moods in Ways People Do Not Anticipate, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(1): 5 (2005).

“Knowledge is not so precise a concept as is commonly thought. Instead of saying "I know this," we ought to say "I more or less know something more or less like this."”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

It is true that this proviso is hardly necessary as regards the multiplication table, but knowledge in practical affairs has not the certainty or the precision of arithmetic. Suppose I say "democracy is a good thing": I must admit, first, that I am less sure of this than I am that two and two are four, and secondly, that "democracy" is a somewhat vague term which I cannot define precisely. We ought to say, therefore: "I am fairly certain that it is a good thing if a government has something of the characteristics that are common to the British and American Constitutions," or something of this sort. And one of the aims of education ought to be to make such a statement more effective from a platform than the usual type of political slogan.
1940s, Philosophy for Laymen (1946)

“The only antidote to the magic of images is the magic of words.”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

Break, Blow, Burn (2005)

“Have family reunions. There is something magic about the common sense of a blood bond. It's not less magic for black, white, brown or polka dot.”

Alex Haley (1921–1992) African American biographer, screenwriter, and novelist

TIME interview (1977)
Context: Have family reunions. There is something magic about the common sense of a blood bond. It's not less magic for black, white, brown or polka dot. The reunion gives a sense that the family cares about itself and is proud of itself. And there is the assumption that you, the family member, are obligated to reflect this pride and, if possible, add to it.

“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.”

Milbourne Christopher (1914–1984) American magician

Milbourne Christopher (Magic: A Picture History)

“Magic is only useful against those with an affinity to magic.”

Melinda M. Snodgrass (1951) American writer

Source: Queen's Gambit Declined (1989), Chapter 6 (p. 76)

“There is no magic. There is only knowledge, more or less hidden.”

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