“Was not the arbitrary distinction between illusion and reality the ultimate illusion itself?”
Norman Spinrad book The Void Captain's Tale
Source: The Void Captain's Tale (1983), Chapter 13 (p. 164)
Make Your Own 3D Illusions (2014).
Context: We long for a technological world, while keeping the natural aspect of our environment; we want the progress, while maintaining the traditions; we want organization while preserving individual freedom; we produce at a large scale while looking for unique products; we want clearness in our relationships, while we like to play with the ambiguity; we wish everlasting happiness while seeking incomparable magic moments… In reality, from all these contradictions, we are looking for only one thing: ASTONISHMENT. We would life to astonish us every day! That’s why we all, human beings, love playing, because games are synonymous of risk and astonishment. Games are enactments, and the act of playing is an illusion of the illusion of the reality.
“Was not the arbitrary distinction between illusion and reality the ultimate illusion itself?”
Norman Spinrad book The Void Captain's Tale
Source: The Void Captain's Tale (1983), Chapter 13 (p. 164)
“Acting is illusion, as much illusion as magic is — and not so much a matter of being real.”
Laurence Olivier (1907–1989) British actor, director and producer
As quoted in Famous Actors and Actresses on the American Stage (1975) by William C. Young, p. 885
Context: Acting is illusion, as much illusion as magic is — and not so much a matter of being real. I mean, I would probably shock Lee Strasberg.
“Illusion or play. Everything agreeable is in them.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist and essayist
Northrop Frye (1912–1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist
1:73
"Quotes", Late Notebooks, 1982–1990: Architecture of the Spiritual World (2002)
“Consciousness is the ultimate Reality; compared with it, all else is illusion.”
Harold W. Percival book Thinking and Destiny
Source: Thinking and Destiny (1946), Ch. 9, Re-Existence, p. 620
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity