illusion

01. The idea that if you work hard enough, you're sure to succeed is an [illusion]. Lots of people work hard all their lives without really getting ahead.

02. Mirrors on the walls give the room the [illusion] of being much bigger than it really is.

03. She had no [illusions] about him. She knew all his faults, but she loved him anyway.

04. Wearing clothing with vertical stripes apparently creates the [illusion] that you are thinner than you really are.

05. Despite all the rhetoric about building a new democracy, and the [illusions] of bringing freedom and peace to the country, the invasion has only resulted in increased violence and hardship.

06. Our country enjoys only an [illusion] of democracy; many people don't vote, the choice of candidates is pathetically limited, and most parties do little of what they promised once they are in office.

07. Many people living in the former Soviet bloc have become [disillusioned] by the slow pace of economic reform following the collapse of communism.

08. He claims he married an Asian woman because he became [disillusioned] by American women, who he considered to be too aggressive and independent.

09. The children felt a great sense of [disillusionment] when their favorite teacher left for another school.

10. The artwork of M.C. Escher is famous for producing [illusions] where you aren't really sure what you are seeing, or the image seems to make the impossible possible.

11. People are often fascinated by [illusory] works of art, where the images show a triumph of the imagination over the limits of reality.

12. Only gods can create reality; the artist merely creates the [illusion] of life.

13. Certain artistic [illusions] take advantage of the way the brain processes information containing repeating patterns.

14. I don't want to [disillusion] you, but your ex-boyfriend really isn't interested in getting back together - he's found somebody new.

15. [Disillusionment] with the established political parties has resulted in frequent low voter turn-outs.

16. She became [disillusioned] when her first art teacher in university gave her failing marks for her paintings.

17. Freedom is [illusory]; we are all prisoners of our need to work for a living.

18. The works of M. C. Escher included many pictures containing highly geometric forms and artistic [illusions].

19. A mirage is an external [illusion] which gives the appearance of water on a surface where there is none.

20. This government seems to live in what is essentially an [illusory] America, where everyone is Christian, there is no homosexuality, and crime is committed only by bad people who deserve to be severely punished.

21. It is only his [illusive] hope of finding a new and better job that keeps him from going completely insane.

22. Pure, everlasting love is an [illusion] fostered by romantic novels and Hollywood movies.

23. The gains our company has made over the past six months are [illusory] because we have consistently lost money for the past three years.

24. Hopes for peace in the war-torn region are largely unrealistic and [illusory], as the root causes for the conflict have not been addressed.

25. Optical [illusions] show that our visual perception is much more complicated than was originally believed.

26. I don't want to [disillusion] you, but really, you're going to find it hard to get a teaching job in this country without a Master's degree.

27. Studies suggest that most marriages go through stages of [disillusionment] in which couples discover that what they expected of their marriage is quite different from how it is actually turning out.

28. One of my favorite optical [illusions] is the young woman/old woman drawing.

29. Military families are said to be angry and [disillusioned], frustrated and full of doubt with the way the war has been going.

30. Recent scandals involving priests sexually abusing young children have caused many believers to become profoundly [disillusioned] in the church.

31. Fran has no [illusions] of becoming a rock star; she just sings with her band for fun.

32. The rapid succession of frames in an animated cartoon give the [illusion] of movement.

33. Any [illusions] people had that this war would bring a quick end to international terrorism have long been erased.

34. Albert Einstein once said that reality is merely an [illusion], though a very persistent one.

35. Someone once joked that reality is an [illusion] that occurs due to the lack of alcohol.

36. Daniel Boorstin once stated that the greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the [illusion] of knowledge.

37. Basketball star Michael Jordan once remarked, "I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it is an [illusion] to me. Failure always made me try harder next time."

38. Leo Tolstoy suggested that it is a strange [illusion] to suppose that beauty is goodness.

39. Tom Wicker once stated that secret activities offer presidents the alluring but often [illusory] promise that they can achieve foreign policy goals without the bothersome debate and open decision that are staples of democracy.