Being a parent is too complicated and emotional a task for magical techniques and miracle cures.
—Ron Taffel (20th century)
The poetic process is not different from conjuration, enchantment, and other magical procedures. And the poet’s attitude is very similar to the magician’s. Both utilize the principle of analogy; both act for utilitarian and immediate ends: they do not ask themselves what language or nature is, but use them for their own purposes. It is not difficult to add another trait: magicians and poets, unlike philosophers, technicians, and sages, draw their powers from themselves. To do their work it is not enough for them to possess a body of knowledge, as is the case with a physicist or a chauffeur. Every magical operation requires an inner force, achieved by a painful effort at purification.
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)
Science is always discovering odd scraps of magical wisdom and making a tremendous fuss about its cleverness.
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)