Quotes: Ignorance. Illusion. Imagination. Imitation.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Ignorance
Ignorance 265 Two types of ignorance: before knowledge and after. "There is an ABC ignorance which precedes knowledge and a doctoral ignorance that comes after it." Montaigne. 1580-8. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Illusion
Illusion 225 Example of how to manufacture an illusion. "Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread which is not there." E. H. Gombrich. 1960. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Illusion 226 Most people live in a world of illusion. " …a world of illusion, almost more potent, in which most men live." Goethe. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Illusion 354 People change from one illusion to another. "Men lived with one kind of illusion and when they lost it they fell into another." Bertrand Russell. “On Being Modern-Minded.” 1950. Gross, ed. Essays.

Imagination
Imagination 746 The imagination sets us free from our perceptions of truth and reality. "It is only through the medium of the imagination that we can loosen those iron fetters, which we call truth and reality, and make ourselves even partially sensible what prisoners we are." Hawthorne: “The New Adam and Eve”

Imagination 237 Imagination does not make strange things commonplace, but makes commonplace things strange. "The function of the imagination is not to make strange things settled, so much as to make settled things strange." Chesterton. 1901. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Imagination 237 What was once imagined is now reality. "What is now proved was once only imagined." Blake. 1790-3. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Imagination 555 Imagination fuses disparate beliefs, insights and mental habits. "…the imagination…fuses hitherto isolated beliefs, insights, mental habits, into strongly unified systems." Sir Isaiah Berlin. “Churchill and Roosevelt.” 1949. Gross, ed. Essays.

Imagination 188 Imagination is free to work when there is no concern about occasional error. " …let us not fear occasional error—the imagination is only free when fear of error is temporarily laid aside." Toffler, Future Shock.

Imitation
Imitation 145 The best revenge is not to imitate. "To refrain from imitation is the best revenge." Marcus Aurelius. 2nd century. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.