Harry Houdini Quotes
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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.
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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.
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Never try to fool children, they expect nothing, and therefore see everything.
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Magic is the sole science not accepted by scientists, because they can't understand it.
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The greatest escape I ever made was when I left Appleton, Wisconsin.
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Iceland, though it lies so far to the north that it is partly within the Arctic Circle, is, like Norway, Scotland, and Ireland, affected by the Gulf Stream, so that considerable portions of it are quite habitable.
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It is still an open question, however, as to what extent exposure really injures a performer.
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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.
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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.
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Pickpockets either work alone or in pairs, or what is called a mob.
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Disloyalty in trusted servants is one of the most disheartening things that can happen to a public performer.
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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.
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Another method of eating burning coals employs small balls of burned cotton in a dish of burning alcohol.
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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.
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The pickpocket is usually very well dressed and of prepossessing appearance.
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Flames from the lips may be produced by holding in the mouth a sponge saturated with the purest gasoline.
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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.
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The Sun represents the right half of the body and the Moon the left half.
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Rosabelle - answer - tell - pray, answer - look - tell - answer, answer - tell.
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Only one man ever betrayed my confidence, and that only in a minor matter.
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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.
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The secret of showmanship consists not of what you really do, but what the mystery-loving public thinks you do.
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What the eyes sees, the ear hears, and the mind believes.
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No performer should attempt to bite off red-hot iron unless he has a good set of teeth.