Baltasar Gracian Quotes

There is an optical illusion about every person we meet.

Illusion - or rather appearance, semblance - is the theme of my life (could be theme of speech welcoming freshmen to the Academy). All that is, seems, and is visible to us because we perceive it by the reflected light of semblance. Nothing else is visible.

The true value of somebody in this town is very hard to determine. It's all smoke and mirrors.

First appearance deceives many.

You can't trust water: Even a straight stick turns crooked in it.

It is quite possible we may have formed entirely erroneous ideas of what we actually see. The greenish gray patches may not be seas at all, nor the ruddy continents, solid land. Neither may the obscuring patches be clouds of vapor.

Who's to say who's an expert?

From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously

We do not see people as they are, but as they appear to us. And these appearances are usually misleading.

You can't go by what things look like on paper.

Everything you see is not always real.

Not seeing is half-believing.

We are led to believe a lie When we see not through the eye.

I appear to be a lot bigger than what I am.

Never believe your eyes

How odd, that light should prevent one from seeing.

Pictures can be pretty deceptive.

Appearances do not deceive if there are enough of them.

...it's just as bad to live in a place where what you do see isn't there as it is to live in one where what you don't see is.

Seeing is not believing - it is only seeing.

Even mud gives the illusion of depth.

How violently do rumors blow the sails of popular judgments! How few there be that can discern between truth and truth-likeness, between shows and substance!

We hear things, but we can't always see them, or, even if we do see them, we're not sure that we're seeing correctly. Hence: Invisible.

A woman's charm is fifty percent illusion.