open/close all folders
Comic Books
"So much for your magic — or should I say super-science... technological marvels that only appear magical to someone not familiar with them!"
— Supergirl, Supergirl (1982) Volume 2
"Magic is just the science for which we don't know the rules quite yet!"
— Henry Flyte, Supergirl (2005), "This Is Not My Life"
Fan Works
"For values of 'turning you into a Magical Girl' equal to 'you having a costume that protects you and operates on principles most people won't understand, and wielding equipment that few on Earth have ever seen, let alone held,' yes, this will turn you into a magical girl!"
— Ryouko Asakura on Kyon's sister request to become a Magical Girl, Kyon: Big Damn Hero
Samberly: Bold move to come into a scientist's house and start talking about magic.
Roger: When you think about it, a lot of the things our lot have faced seem to come right out of a fairytale.
Sousa: Sufficiently advanced technology. *Beat* Oh, it's uh, it's something a guy I met over in London said once. That if the rate of technological advance stays the same, by the 21st century it would seem like magic to us.
Roger: When you think about it, a lot of the things our lot have faced seem to come right out of a fairytale.
Sousa: Sufficiently advanced technology. *Beat* Oh, it's uh, it's something a guy I met over in London said once. That if the rate of technological advance stays the same, by the 21st century it would seem like magic to us.
Film
"Cell phone. You talk in here and someone far away hears you. No wires. Impossible. Even thirty years ago, this would have belonged in The Library. Three hundred years ago, you would've been burned at the stake for it. Some of the items in The Library violate the known laws of science. But that is only because our brains are so small... we haven't come up with laws... to explain them."
— Mr. Carsen, The Librarian
Nazi Officer: And I suppose you still aim to win this war through magic?
Red Skull: Science, but I understand your confusion. Great power has always baffled primitive men.
Red Skull: Science, but I understand your confusion. Great power has always baffled primitive men.
"Everything we don't understand is magic until we understand it!"
— Baron Frankenstein. Frankenstein Created Woman
Byron: How does an isolated tribesman in Ecuador know the difference between an alien, an angel, and a ghost?
Mike Danube: I have no idea.
Byron: He doesn't, but he tells a story to make sense of the infinite.
Mike Danube: I have no idea.
Byron: He doesn't, but he tells a story to make sense of the infinite.
Literature
"Witchcraft to the ignorant," murmured the voice coolly. "Simple science to the learned."
— "The Sorcerer of Rhiannon" by Leigh Brackett, Astounding Stories Feb 1942
"You know, Merlin, up until this moment, despite Saint Zherneau's journal and the other documents, I haven't really been able to wrap my head around what you mean when you talk about 'advanced technology.' Maybe that's because I haven't really tried to. I've been too concerned, too focused, on just surviving to really try to imagine what the future—or maybe I should say the past—could have been like. I guess the fact that you're alive, and the incredible things I've seen you do, should have given me a clue, but to be honest, I've still thinking of you like Seijin Kohdy. You're not 'technology,' not something one of Howsmyn's mechanics might've designed or built if they'd only had the right collection of nuts and bolts and the right wrench. You're magic—any ninny could tell that! But now—"
— Cayleb Ahrmahk to Merlin Athrawes, By Heresies Distressed
I've been a whole zoo, you know. Everything from a fly to an elephant. Bat. Owl. I've flown, way up in the sky with eagle wings. I've flown up there with Tobias. Way up in the clouds. If there's something better than that, well, I never found it.
It's not magic. Just technology. Of course technology always seems like magic at first. Haul a tenth-century knight into the modern age and show him your cell phone or your TV or your computer or your car. Magic.
It's not magic. Just technology. Of course technology always seems like magic at first. Haul a tenth-century knight into the modern age and show him your cell phone or your TV or your computer or your car. Magic.
— Animorphs #54: The Beginning
"I'm sorry, I haven’t been keeping up with the times—what field of magecraft uses the term 'social network'?"
— Rocco, Fate/strange Fake
"Physics is for the weak."
— Nirai Kujen, Revenant Gun, The Machineries of Empire
It's always been the same, you know, all through the ages. Recipes for beauty, for attracting the man you love. And witchcraft and charms and marvellous happenings. Nowadays they're mostly lumped together under the heading of Science. Nobody believes in magicians any more, nobody believes that anyone can come along and wave a wand and turn you into a frog. But if you read in the paper that by injecting certain glands scientists can alter your vital tissues and you'll develop froglike characteristics, well, everybody would believe that.
Live-Action TV
Elric: Do you believe in magic, Captain?
Sheridan: ... If we went back a thousand years, they could only understand this place in terms of magic.
Elric: Then perhaps it is magic. The magic of the human heart, focused and made manifest by technology.
Sheridan: ... If we went back a thousand years, they could only understand this place in terms of magic.
Elric: Then perhaps it is magic. The magic of the human heart, focused and made manifest by technology.
"Primitive species would accuse us of magic, but it's just the careful application of science."
— A Sister of Plenitude, Doctor Who, "New Earth"
Picard: Nuria... your people live in huts. Was it always so?
Nuria: No. We have found remnants of tools in caves. Our ancestors must have lived there.
Picard: So why do you now live in huts?
Nuria: Huts are better. Caves are dark and wet.
Picard: So if huts are better, why did you once live in caves?
Nuria: ... The most reasonable answer would be at one time we didn't know how to make huts.
Picard: Just as at one time you did not know how to weave cloth or how to make a bow.
Nuria: That would be reasonable.
Picard: Someone invented a hut. Someone invented a bow, who taught others, who taught their children, who built a stronger hut, built a better bow, who taught their children. Now, Nuria... Suppose one of your cave-dwelling ancestors were to see you as you are today. What would she think?
Nuria: I don't know.
Picard: Well, put yourself in her place. You see, she can not kill a hornbuck at a great distance. You can. You have a power she lacks.
Nuria: Only because I have a bow.
Picard: She has never seen a bow — it doesn't exist in her world. To you, it's a simple tool. To her, it's magic.
Nuria: I think she would fear me.
Picard: Just as you now fear me.
Nuria: I do not fear you any longer.
Picard: Good. That's good. You see, my people once lived in caves. And then we learned to build huts and, in time, to build ships like this one.
Nuria: Perhaps one day, my people will travel above the skies.
Picard: Of that, I have absolutely no doubt.
Nuria: No. We have found remnants of tools in caves. Our ancestors must have lived there.
Picard: So why do you now live in huts?
Nuria: Huts are better. Caves are dark and wet.
Picard: So if huts are better, why did you once live in caves?
Nuria: ... The most reasonable answer would be at one time we didn't know how to make huts.
Picard: Just as at one time you did not know how to weave cloth or how to make a bow.
Nuria: That would be reasonable.
Picard: Someone invented a hut. Someone invented a bow, who taught others, who taught their children, who built a stronger hut, built a better bow, who taught their children. Now, Nuria... Suppose one of your cave-dwelling ancestors were to see you as you are today. What would she think?
Nuria: I don't know.
Picard: Well, put yourself in her place. You see, she can not kill a hornbuck at a great distance. You can. You have a power she lacks.
Nuria: Only because I have a bow.
Picard: She has never seen a bow — it doesn't exist in her world. To you, it's a simple tool. To her, it's magic.
Nuria: I think she would fear me.
Picard: Just as you now fear me.
Nuria: I do not fear you any longer.
Picard: Good. That's good. You see, my people once lived in caves. And then we learned to build huts and, in time, to build ships like this one.
Nuria: Perhaps one day, my people will travel above the skies.
Picard: Of that, I have absolutely no doubt.
"You mustn't think of us as omnipotent, no matter what The Continuum would like you to believe. You and your ship seem incredibly powerful to lifeforms without your technological expertise! It's no different with us; we may appear omnipotent to you, but believe me, we're not."
— Quinn, Star Trek: Voyager, "Death Wish"
Holographic Leonardo da Vinci: I cannot believe it. I will not believe it. My mind cannot accept the evidence of my eyes. Is this sorcery? Are we in Purgatory?
Janeway: Neither. You said yourself this place was full of marvels.
Leonardo: Marvels, yes, but this is magic. Enchantment, not science. And I refuse to believe in enchantment.
Janeway: I'll explain later. We've got to keep moving.
Leonardo: No! I must understand. Catarina, to see objects disappear into thin air. To see lightning pass through my body. Are we spirits? Catarina, am I dead?
Janeway: Let me ask you something. If you were something other than a human being. If you were a different kind of animal. If you were a small bird, a sparrow. What would your world be like?
Leonardo: I should make my home in a tree, in the branch of an elm. I should hunt insects for food, straw for my nest, and in the springtime I should sing for a companion.
Janeway: And you would know nothing of the politics of Florence, the cutting of marble or mathematics?
Leonardo: Of course not.
Janeway: But why not?
Da Vinci: My mind would be too small.
Janeway: As a sparrow your mind would be too small? Even with the best of teachers?
Leonardo: If Aristotle himself were to perch on my branch and lecture till he fell off from exhaustion, still the limits of my mind would prevent me from understanding.
Janeway: And as a man, can you accept that there may be certain realities beyond the limits of your comprehension?
Leonardo: I could not accept that. And I would be a fool.
Tabletop Games
“Consider . . . a simple fire spell, perhaps.” The centaur snapped his fingers and a flame danced above his hand for a moment. “Magical, is it not? But I see that two occupants of the front row are puzzled, which is good, because it suggests that they not only possess a useful sensitivity but that they are willing to use it. So consider tool use.” He extended the same hand and placed a small, glittering object on the lectern in front of him. “This comes, I’m told, from another reality. It produces flame at the touch of a finger, so long as it is kept supplied with a fuel, for which my friends in the alchemists’ quarter charge rather a lot. And yet neither the object nor the fuel responds to any tests for enchantment that I or anyone I’ve met has been able to develop.”
— GURPS Thaumatology
Video Games
"You cannot understand the power of SCIENCE!"
— Baron Aloha, Jumping Flash!
Mei Ling: Come on, Snake! Don't get all grumpy and start talking about how unscientific it is. Science is basically just another form of magic that makes our lives easier.
Snake: I never thought I'd hear that coming from you, Mei Ling.
Mei Ling: Don't you think talking to someone halfway around the world is a kind of magic? Or flying across entire continents?
Snake: Nooo. I think this is completely different.
Snake: I never thought I'd hear that coming from you, Mei Ling.
Mei Ling: Don't you think talking to someone halfway around the world is a kind of magic? Or flying across entire continents?
Snake: Nooo. I think this is completely different.
— Super Smash Bros. Brawl, on Princess Zelda's transfiguration powers (Codec dialogue on Sheik)
"The essence of magic is to determine the root cause of all things. There's no distinction between science and magic. The power of magic is like those of science. Meaning, it's at the forefront of the times!"
— Patchouli Knowledge, Touhou Project
Roland: Hey neat, it's a polymorphic molecular phase storage system.
Miller: Which means...
Roland: Mmmagic!
Miller: Which means...
Roland: Mmmagic!
— Halo 4 Spartan Ops
"The Doctor told me once if you showed a caveman our technology he would think it was magic. And if you showed a modern man magic, he would think it was technology."
— Variant, Outlast
Webcomics
Lari: [on seeing a cell phone] Is that another magical item?
Molly: Only in the Clarkean sense. Not in the Gygaxian sense.
Molly: Only in the Clarkean sense. Not in the Gygaxian sense.
"Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it."
— Florence Ambrose, Freefall
Web Original
"There are still isolated tribes in the Amazon, the great heartland of Mother Earth, Stone Age peoples who have been sheltered by millions of square acres of impassible jungle. There have been flyovers of film crews, which surely has caused a great deal of confusion among the tribes. What context do they possibly have for a helicopter or airplane in their conception of the world? These surreptitious flybys must be utterly magical and mysterious. Or more likely, demonic... We breathe the same air these tribes do but we live for all intents and purposes in two entirely separate worlds. But would we- do we- behave any differently when confronted with a bewildering superior technology?"
"The word 'technology'... means... 'magic'. It's basically anything that's really cool that you don't know how it works. And if it breaks, you have to buy a new one."
— Strong Bad, Homestar Runner, technology
"When will Hollywood learn that sometimes keeping a mystery is a good thing? Inevitably when we talk about a reason for immortality is alien technology or a god (or magic which leads to a god). Whether you choose aliens (Highlander 2) or a god/magic (Highlander: The Source) your story is still crap."
Mara: Man, technology is incredible... Are you sure you're not magically powered somehow?
Yamato: Well, all sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic. But no, technically I'm a science chick.
Mara: By that definition everything in you is magic to me. And I can't even comprehend the fact that I'm, technically speaking, in you right now even as I speak to what appears to be all of you... Been a rough few days for my rationale, for sure."
Yamato: Well, all sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic. But no, technically I'm a science chick.
Mara: By that definition everything in you is magic to me. And I can't even comprehend the fact that I'm, technically speaking, in you right now even as I speak to what appears to be all of you... Been a rough few days for my rationale, for sure."
Constantine: Gods and Demons are about to wage war in Starling City. You'll need magic to overcome the dark days ahead mate.
Green Arrow: You expect me to believe magic is real?
Constantine: The Lazarus Pit brought your sister back to life. How do you think it did that?
Green Arrow: ...really cool water that heals people in a way science can't explain?
Constantine: I want you to go look up the meaning of 'magic' and then get back to me on your current belief structure.
Green Arrow: You expect me to believe magic is real?
Constantine: The Lazarus Pit brought your sister back to life. How do you think it did that?
Green Arrow: ...really cool water that heals people in a way science can't explain?
Constantine: I want you to go look up the meaning of 'magic' and then get back to me on your current belief structure.
"When I was 5, 6 years old, I asked my dad 'Dad? What is technology?' And my dad goes, 'It's magic, Joel! It's magic!' Ever since that day, little Joel was never the same."
— Joel, Vinesauce, "Windows 7 Destruction"
Western Animation
Professor Farnsworth: Now we just reintroduce Calculon's programming to his body using science!
Amy: It's like magic, but with electricity.
Amy: It's like magic, but with electricity.
— Futurama
Real Life
"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
— Barry Gehm
"Sherlock is a smart person written by a stupid person to whom smart people are indistinguishable from wizards."
— Anonymous regarding Sherlock
