Optical Illusions

Famous quotes containing the words optical illusions, optical and/or illusions:

    People who have realized that this is a dream imagine that it is easy to wake up, and are angry with those who continue sleeping, not considering that the whole world that environs them does not permit them to wake. Life proceeds as a series of optical illusions, artificial needs and imaginary sensations.
    Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)

    It is said that a carpenter building a summer hotel here ... declared that one very clear day he picked out a ship coming into Portland Harbor and could distinctly see that its cargo was West Indian rum. A county historian avers that it was probably an optical delusion, the result of looking so often through a glass in common use in those days.
    —For the State of New Hampshire, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    Illusions are certainly expensive amusements: but the destruction of illusions is even more expensive—when looked upon as an amusement, which to many people is what it undeniably is.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)