Harry Houdini
I am a great admirer of mystery and magic. Look at this life - all mystery and magic.Collection: Great
I think that in a year I may retire. I cannot take my money with me when I die and I wish to enjoy it, with my family, while I live. I should prefer living in Germany to any other country, though I am an American, and am loyal to my country.Collection: Money
It is needless to say that women make the most patient as well as the most dangerous pickpockets.Collection: Women
Pickpockets either work alone or in pairs, or what is called a mob.Collection: Alone
What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes.
It is not unusual for the eye or ear to play tricks with one, but when such illusions and delusions are taken for the Spirit forms of the departed and voices of the dead instead of being recognized as some subjective phenomena brought about by a physical cause, the situation takes on a grave aspect.
I have made compacts with fourteen different persons that whichever of us died first would communicate with the other if it were possible, but I have never received a word.
Only one man ever betrayed my confidence, and that only in a minor matter.
No performer should attempt to bite off red-hot iron unless he has a good set of teeth.
My professional life has been a constant record of disillusion, and many things that seem wonderful to most men are the every-day commonplaces of my business.
How the early priests came into possession of these secrets does not appear, and if there were ever any records of this kind the Church would hardly allow them to become public.
Another method of eating burning coals employs small balls of burned cotton in a dish of burning alcohol.
But it must not be thought that I say this out of personal experience: for in the many years that I have been before the public my secret methods have been steadily shielded by the strict integrity of my assistants, most of whom have been with me for years.
Fire has always been and, seemingly, will always remain, the most terrible of the elements.
It is still an open question, however, as to what extent exposure really injures a performer.
Eating coals of fire has always been one of the sensational feats of the Fire Kings, as it is quite generally known that charcoal burns with an extremely intense heat.
A common pickpocket trick is for the operator to carry a shawl or overcoat carelessly over the left arm, and to take a seat on the right side of the person they intend to rob in a streetcar or other vehicle.
The pickpocket is usually very well dressed and of prepossessing appearance.
In all feats of fire-eating it should be noted that the head is thrown well back, so that the flame may pass out of the open mouth instead of up into the roof, as it would if the head were held naturally.
Flames from the lips may be produced by holding in the mouth a sponge saturated with the purest gasoline.
The eating of burning brimstone is an entirely fake performance.
The great day of the Fire-eater - or, should I say, the day of the great Fire-eater - has passed.
I make the most money, I think, in Russia and Paris, for the people of those countries are so willing to be amused, so eager to see something new and out of the ordinary.
But then, so far as I know, I am the only performer who ever pledged his assistants to secrecy, honor and allegiance under a notarial oath.
To cause the face to appear in a mass of flame make use of the following: mix together thoroughly petroleum, lard, mutton tallow and quick lime. Distill this over a charcoal fire, and the liquid which results can be burned on the face without harm.
No prison can hold me; no hand or leg irons or steel locks can shackle me. No ropes or chains can keep me from my freedom.Collection: Hands
What the eyes sees, the ear hears, and the mind believes.Collection: Believe
My Brain is the key that sets me free.Collection: Freedom
Never tell the auidience how good you are, they will soon find out for themselves.Collection: Magic
Never try to fool children, they expect nothing, and therefore see everything.Collection: Children
An old trick well done is far better than a new trick with no effect.Collection: Done
Magic is the sole science not accepted by scientists, because they can't understand it.Collection: Magic
Look at this life - all mystery and magic.Collection: Magic
Keep up your enthusiasm! There is nothing more contagious than exuberant enthusiasm.Collection: Magic
My chief task has been to conquer fear. The public sees only the thrill of the accomplished trick; they have no conception of the tortuous preliminary self-training that was necessary to conquer fear.Collection: Self
A magician is only an actor - an actor pretending to be a magician.Collection: Actors
The secret of showmanship consists not of what you really do, but what the mystery-loving public thinks you do.Collection: Thinking
Anyone who believes in magic is a fool.Collection: Believe
The greatest escape I ever made was when I left Appleton, Wisconsin.Collection: Wisconsin
Some say I do it this way, others say I do it that way, but I say I do it the other way.Collection: Magic
I always have on my mind the thought that next year I must do something greater, something more wonderful.Collection: Years
I am not an irretrievable skeptic. I am not hopelessly prejudiced. I am perfectly willing to believe, and my mind is wide open; but I have, as yet, to be convinced. I am perfectly willing, but the evidence must be sane and conclusive.Collection: Believe
I must fling myself down and writhe; I must strive with every piece of force I possess; I bruise and batter myself against the floor, the walls; I strain and sob and exhaust myself, and begin again, and exhaust myself again; but do I feel pain? Never. How can I feel pain? There is no place for it.Collection: Wall
I knew, as everyone knows, that the easiest way to attract a crowd is to let it be known that at a given time and a given place some one is going to attempt something that in the event of failure will mean sudden death. That's what attracts us to the man who paints the flagstaff on the tall building, or to the 'human fly' who scales the walls of the same building.Collection: Wall
They do tricks even I can't figure out.Collection: Law
The Sun represents the right half of the body and the Moon the left half.Collection: Moon
I do not believe that ghosts or spirits exist.Collection: Believe
The great trouble with magicians is the fact that they believe when they have bought a certain trick or piece of apparatus, and know the method of procedure, that they are full-fledged mystifiers.Collection: Believe
My professional life has been a constant record of disillusion.Collection: Records
Rosabelle - answer - tell - pray, answer - look - tell - answer, answer - tell.Collection: Looks