Illusion (n.) is illusion, not because people cannot ever accept hard reality and need false dreams, but because illusions are sustained by the unconditional insistence of a drive that is more real than reality itself.
An Illusion (n.) commends itself to us on account of the fact that it saves us pain and allows us to enjoy pleasure instead.
An Illusion (n.) saves one pain and allows one to enjoy pleasure instead. Sometimes its collides with a bit of reality against which it is dashed to pieces.
An Illusion (n.) is what perception makes of an impression too weak, unclear or brief: the distant object is first a horse, then a cow lying down, then a group of people sitting on the ground.
An Illusion (n.) can be enjoyed while known to be illusion, so long as the gap with reality is not allowed to interfere.
An Illusion (n.) is not the same as an error, nor necessarily an error; what marks it is that it is derived from a wish.
An Illusion (n.) need not be false: the middle-class girl's dream that a prince will marry her sometimes comes true.
An Illusion (n.) is a belief in whose motivation wish-fulfilment is prominent — and like the illusion itself, we disregard its relation to reality, for it sets no store by verification.
An Illusion (n.) can sit inside an error: Columbus believed he had found a new sea-route to the Indies, and his wish so clearly played its part.
An Illusion (n.) held by a scientist differs from religion's: no penalty for not sharing it, and it remains open to correction — it has not the character of a delusion.
An Illusion (n.) that is religious must be defended with all one's might, for if it falls the believer's world collapses; he who has renounced infantile wishes can bear a few illusions failing.
Illusion (n.) is what groups demand: they have never thirsted after truth, and put the unreal ahead of the real.