The existence of St Sophia is atmospheric; that of St Peter's, overpowering, imminently substantial.One is a church to God; the other a salon for his agents.One is consecrated to reality, the other to illusion. St Sophia, in fact, is large, and St Peter's is vilely, tragically small.

-Byron, Robert
  The Byzantine Achievement.

All great poetry gives the illusion of a view of life.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  'Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca'.

It is not easy nowadays to remember anything so contrary to all appearances as that officials are the servants of the public; and the official must try not to foster the illusion that it is the other way round.

-Gowers, Sir Ernest Arthur
  Plain Words, ch.3.

When we run over libraries, persuaded of these principles, what havoc must we make? If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact or existence? No.Commit itthen tothe flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.

-Hume, David
  An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, section12, pt.3.

Les grands artistes sont ceux qui imposent a'   l'humanite¤ leur illusion particulie'  re. Great artistsimposetheir particular illusiononhumanity.

-Maupassant, Guy de
  Pierre et  Jean, pre¤  face.

A good simulation, be it a religious myth or scientific theory, gives us a sense of mastery over experience. To represent something symbolically, as we do when we speak or write, is somehow to capture it, thus making it one's own. But with this appropriation comes the realization that we have denied the immediacy of reality and that in creating a substitute we have but spun another thread in the web of our grand illusion.

-Pagels, Heinz R(udolf)
  The Dreams of Reason.

The House of Lords, an illusion to which I have never been able to subscribeöresponsibility without power, the prerogative of the eunuch throughout the ages. See Baldwin 54:46.

-Stoppard, SirTom originally Tom Straussler
 Lord Malquist and Mr Moon, pt.6.

   I am convinced that the history of so-called scientific work in our famous centers of European civilization will, in a couple of hundred years, represent an inexhaustible source of laughter and sorrow for future generations. The learned men of the small western part of our European continent lived for several centuries under the illusionthatthe eternal blessed life wastheWest'sfuture. They were interested in the problem of when and where this blessed life would come.But they never thought of how they were going to make their life better.

-Tolstoy, Leo Nikolayevich
  What is Art? (translated byV Tchertkoff).

However many people may complain about the'red tape', it would be sheer illusion to think for a moment that continuous administrative work can be carried out in any field except by means of officials working in offices† The choice is only that between bureaucracy and dilettantism in the field of administration.

-Weber, Max
  Collected in Guenther Roth and ClausWittich (eds) Economy and Society (1978), ch.3.