John Burnside Quotes

My idea of magic doesn't have much to do with stage tricks and illusions. The whole world abounds in magic.

I certainly have had experiences of a sense of wonder at the world and a feeling that even though it could all be explained rationally, it still feels that there is more to it.

I believe that life is chaotic, a jumble of accidents, ambitions, misconceptions, bold intentions, lazy happenstances, and unintended consequences, yet I also believe that there are connections that illuminate our world, revealing its endless mystery and wonder.

The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.

You always admire what you really don't understand.

The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.

There are still so many questions to answer. When you look at any part of the universe, you have to feel humbled.

The world is a strange and wonderful place.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

To be existing at all is beautiful simply because of how complicated and unexplainable being alive really is.

I'm still amazed at how the universe works.

I love the unexplainable. It would be so boring to me if everything could be explained.

Every experience has its element of magic.

Sometimes we wish the world could cry and tell us about that which made it pregnant with fear-filling grandeur. Sometimes we wish our own heart would speak of that which made it heavy with wonder.

The world is not an unsolved problem for scientists or sociologists. The world is a living mystery.

Wonder is like grace, in that it's not a condition we grasp; it grasps us. Wonder is not an obligatory element in the search for truth. We can seek truth without wonder's assistance. But seek is all we'll do; there will be no finding. Unless wonder descends, unlocks us ... truth is unable to enter. Wonder may be the aura of truth, the halo of it. Or something even closer. Wonder may be the caress of truth, touching our very skin.

The more we know about this universe, the more mysterious it is. The old world that Job knew was marvelous enough, and his description of its wonders is among the noblest poetry of the race, but today the new science has opened to our eyes vistas of mystery that transcend in their inexplicable marvel anything the ancients ever dreamed.

The comprehensibility of the world seems to me a wonder or eternal secret. Here lies the sense of wonder which increases even more with the development of our knowledge.

There was no one alive who did not contribute his share of mystery to the world.

The mystery was gone but the amazement was just starting.

The art of a magician is to create wonder. If we live with a sense of wonder, our lives become filled with joy.

The unknown always passes for the marvellous.

The novel is the highest example of subtle interrelatedness that man has discovered.

No wonder is greater than any other wonder, and if once explained ceases to be a wonder.

The sense of wonder, that is our sixth sense.