
“When two people dream the same dream, it ceases to be an illusion.”
Lies, Inc. (1984)
“When two people dream the same dream, it ceases to be an illusion.”
Lies, Inc. (1984)
“Death only grasps; to live is to pursue, —
Dream on! there 's nothing but illusion true!”
"The Old Player" (1861), in Songs in Many Keys (1862).
Context: Dream on! Though Heaven may woo our open eyes,
Through their closed lids we look on fairer skies;
Truth is for other worlds, and hope for this;
The cheating future lends the present's bliss;
Life is a running shade, with fettered hands,
That chases phantoms over shifting sands;
Death a still spectre on a marble seat,
With ever clutching palms and shackled feet;
The airy shapes that mock life's slender chain,
The flying joys he strives to clasp in vain,
Death only grasps; to live is to pursue, —
Dream on! there 's nothing but illusion true!
“Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of flattering illusions.”
Part First: The Silver of the Mine, Ch. 6
Nostromo (1904)
Preface to the Third Edition (August 1942)
The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933)
Context: If, by being revolutionary, one means rational rebellion against intolerable social conditions, if, by being radical, one means "going to the root of things," the rational will to improve them, then fascism is never revolutionary. True, it may have the aspect of revolutionary emotions. But one would not call that physician revolutionary who proceeds against a disease with violent cursing but the other who quietly, courageously and conscientiously studies and fights the causes of the disease. Fascist rebelliousness always occurs where fear of the truth turns a revolutionary emotion into illusions.
“The self really is an illusion—and realizing this is the basis of spiritual life.”
Sam Harris, Interview with The Minimalists (19 August 2014)
2010s
Source: 2010s, Waking Up (2014), p. 82