Harry Houdini

“The pickpocket is usually very well dressed and of prepossessing appearance.”

“What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes.”

“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.”

“The great day of the Fire-eater - or, should I say, the day of the great Fire-eater - has passed.”

“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.”

“It is still an open question, however, as to what extent exposure really injures a performer.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Fire has always been and, seemingly, will always remain, the most terrible of the elements.”

“I am a great admirer of mystery and magic. Look at this life - all mystery and magic.”

“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.”

“Another method of eating burning coals employs small balls of burned cotton in a dish of burning alcohol.”

“Only one man ever betrayed my confidence, and that only in a minor matter.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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 performer should attempt to bite off red-hot iron unless he has a good set of teeth.”

“Pickpockets either work alone or in pairs, or what is called a mob.”