magic Quotes

“I’ve always wanted to use that spell.”

“Ah, music,” he said, wiping his eyes. “A magic beyond all we do here!”

“Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both influencing injury, and remedying it.”

“Yer a wizard Harry.”

“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”

Sometimes since I’ve been in the garden I’ve looked up through the trees at the sky and I have had a strange feeling of being happy as if something were pushing and drawing in my chest and making me breathe fast. Magic is always pushing and drawing and making things out of nothing. Everything is made out of Magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. So it must be all around us. In this garden—in all the places. The Magic in this garden has made me stand up and know I am going to live to be a man.

When I was going to try to stand that first time Mary kept saying to herself as fast as she could, ‘You can do it! You can do it!’ and I did. I had to try myself at the same time, of course, but her Magic helped me—and so did Dickon’s. Every morning and evening and as often in the daytime as I can remember I am going to say, ‘Magic is in me! Magic is making me well! I am going to be as strong as Dickon, as strong as Dickon!’ And you must all do it, too. That is my experiment Will you help, Ben Weatherstaff?”

“I never knowed it by that name but what does th’ name matter? I warrant they call it a different name i’ France an’ a different one i’ Germany. Th’ same thing as set th’ seeds swellin’ an’ th’ sun shinin’ made thee a well lad an’ it’s th’ Good Thing. It isn’t like us poor fools as think it matters if us is called out of our names. Th’ Big Good Thing doesn’t stop to worrit, bless thee. It goes on makin’ worlds by th’ million—worlds like us. Never thee stop believin’ in th’ Big Good Thing an’ knowin’ th’ world’s full of it—an’ call it what tha’ likes. Tha’ wert singin’ to it when I come into th’ garden.”

“But all the magic I have known I’ve had to make myself.”

“Magic is the art of thinking, not strength or language . . . ”

“This is a magical place,” I said. “Everything shines here.” “You must stop yourself from thinking like that,” Dr. Kerry said, his voice raised. “You are not fool’s gold, shining only under a particular light. Whomever you become, whatever you make yourself into, that is who you always were. It was always in you. Not in Cambridge. In you. You are gold. And returning to BYU, or even to that mountain you came from, will not change who you are. It may change how others see you, it may even change how you see yourself—even gold appears dull in some lighting—but that is the illusion. And it always was.”

“You would be amazed how many magicians have died after being bitten by mad rabbits. It’s far more common than you might think.”

“Somehow, something always happens just before things get to the very worst. It is as if Magic did it. If I could only just remember that always. The worse thing never quite comes.”

The reindeer were excited. They pranced and paced, ringing the silver sleigh bells that hung from their harnesses. It was a magical sound, like nothing I’d ever heard.

In the civilized countries I believe there are no witches left, nor wizards, nor sorceresses, nor magicians.

“Then what is magic for?” Prince Lír demanded wildly. “What use is wizardry if it cannot save a unicorn?” He gripped the magician’s shoulder hard, to keep from falling. Schmendrick did not turn his head. With a touch of sad mockery in his voice, he said, “That’s what heroes are for.”

“Sandra’s seen a leprechaun, Eddie touched a troll, Laurie danced with witches once, Charlie found some goblins’ gold. Donald heard a mermaid sing, Susy spied an elf, But all the magic I have known I’ve had to make myself.”

″‘Up to now,’ Miss Honey went on, ‘I have found it impossible to talk to anyone about my problems. I couldn’t face the embarrassment, and anyway I lack the courage. Any courage I had was knocked out of me when I was young. But now, all of a sudden I have a sort of desperate wish to tell everything to somebody. I know you are only a tiny little girl, but there is some kind of magic in you somewhere. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.‘”

“Because we are playing with mysterious forces, my child, that we know nothing about. I do not think they are evil. They may be good. They may even be divine. But whether they are or not, let us handle them carefully.”

“She was feeling curiously elated. She felt as though she had touched something that was not quite of this world, the highest point of the heavens, the farthest star. She had felt most wonderfully the power surging up behind her eyes, gushing like a warm fluid inside her skull, and her eyes had become scorching hot, hotter than ever before, and things had come bursting out of her eye-sockets and then the piece of chalk had lifted itself up and had begun to write. It seemed as though she had hardly done anything, it had all been so simple.”

“It’s a Magic Puddin”

“They left the inn behind them, the howls of the witch-queen ringing in their ears. They were underground, and the candlelight flickered from the wet cave walls; and with their next halting step they were in a desert of white sand, in the moonlight; and with their third step they were high above the earth, looking down on the hills and trees and rivers far below them.”

“If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.”

“My high charms work, And these, mine enemies, are all knit up In their distractions. They now are in my power.”

“Those being all my study, The government I cast upon my brother And to my state grew stranger, being transported And rapt in secret studies.”

“Carmen finally let out her breath. ‘These are magic pants.‘”

″‘Wasn’t I Real before?’ asked the little Rabbit. ‘You were Real to the Boy,’ the Fairy said, ‘because he loved you. Now you shall be Real to every one.‘”

“For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.”

“Seth was altered by magic imposed upon him. But the potential to fall and become an imp is a fundamental aspect of being a fairy […] Muriel might be able to undo the enchantments forced upon Seth. Reversing the fall of a fairy would be far beyond her capacity.”

“And he found that he actually had hind legs! Instead of dingy velveteen he had brown fur, soft and shiny, his ears twitched by themselves, and his whiskers were so long that they brushed the grass. He gave one leap and the joy of using those hind legs was so great that he went springing about the turf on them, jumping sideways and whirling round as the others did, and he grew so excited that when at last he did stop to look for the Fairy she had gone.”

“Weeks passed, and the little Rabbit grew very old and shabby, but the Boy loved him just as much. He loved him so hard that he loved all his whiskers off, and the pink lining to his ears turned grey, and his brown spots faded. He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy. To him he was always beautiful, and that was all that the little Rabbit cared about. He didn’t mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn’t matter.”

“Powerful magic holds the knots in place. When released, Muriel can channel that magic into granting the favor.”

“A fairy with raven black hair and bumblebee wings approached the bowl. Mimicking Kendra, she dipped a finger and tasted it. In a whirling shower of sparks the fairy grew to nearly six feet tall.”

“There was no way she was really seeing this, right? There had to be an explanation. But the fairies were everywhere, near and far, shimmering in vivid colors. How could she deny what was before her eyes”

″‘How did you become a chicken in the first place?’ Seth asked. ‘Pride made me careless,’ Grandma said. ‘A sobering reminder that none of us are immune to the dangers here, even when we imagine we have the upper hand.‘”

“In a world where mortal man has become the dominant force, most creatures of enchantment have fled to refuges like this one.”

“There was no way she was really seeing this, right? There had to be an explanation. But the fairies were everywhere, near and far, shimmering in vivid colors. How could she deny what was before her eyes”

″‘She is a perfectly terrible person,’ said Lucy. ‘She calls herself the Queen of Narnia thought she has no right to be queen at all...And she can turn people into stone and do all kinds of horrible things. And she has made a magic so that it is always winter in Narnia—always winter, but it never gets to Christmas. And she drives about on a sledge, drawn by reindeer, with her wand in her hand and a crown on her head.’

“At last the Turkish Delight was all finished and Edmund was looking very hard at the empty box and wishing that she would ask him whether he would like some more. Probably the Queen knew quite well what he was thinking; for she knew, though Edmund did not, that this was enchanted Turkish Delight and that anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it, and would even, if they were allowed, go on eating it till they killed themselves.”

“Summer pretended to sneeze and spit her Moon Rock into the weeds. Her body grew heavier. ‘I don’t have time to stand around talking,’ she said. ‘Let’s just say, if I were you, I wouldn’t mess around with us anymore.’ She turned and walked away hurriedly.”

“Kendra turned. All she saw was a butterfly and a couple of hummingbirds. She looked back at Seth. He was turning in circles, eyes darting around the garden, apparently perplexed and amazed. ‘They’re everywhere,’ he said in awe. ‘What are?’ ‘Look around. The fairies.‘”

″‘What assignment?’ Nate inquired. ‘You told me that you’re explorers,’ Mrs. White said, leaning against a worktable. ‘I have a need specific to your talents. If you accept the mission, I will provide you with a variety of new candy to get the job done, with more as a reward upon completion.‘”

″‘Okay, I’ll do it first.’ He popped the Moon Rock into his mouth. ‘Feel any different?’ Pigeon asked eagerly. ‘A little,’ Nate said. ‘Sort of tingly. It tastes really good. I almost feel . . .’ He moved to take a step and floated up into the air. He rose slowly, his feet reaching the height of Trevor’s eyes before he drifted downward to land gently on the ground. ′ . . . lighter,′ Nate finished, bewildered.”

“Nate had considered using a Moon Rock to reach Mr. Stott’s house faster, but in broad daylight he felt he would be too conspicuous. Not everyone in town was consuming white fudge. Besides, leaping with a Moon Rock wasn’t that much faster than running. Thankfully, most of the way to Mr. Stott’s place was downhill.”

″‘Five days!’ Nate exclaimed. ‘Breaking a curse is no small matter,’ Mozag said. ‘Five days with greenish skin is a small price to pay. While you’re waiting, help yourself to the sardines.‘”

″‘Tingly,’ he said. His eyes widened. ‘Really tingly!’ His clothes suddenly looked very loose. He looked up at Kendra, craning his neck at his much taller sister...The shrinking accelerated, and he seemed to disappear.”

“See why I’ve got to go back? I don’t belong here. I belong in your world, at Hogwarts.”

″‘You can speak Parseltongue, Harry,’ said Dumbledore calmly, ‘because Lord Voldemort-who is the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin- can speak Parseltongue.‘”

“It’s a great huge game of chess that’s being played—all over the world—if this is the world at all, you know.”

“Terabithia was their secret, which was a good thing, for how could Jess have ever explained it to an outsider? Just walking down the hill toward the woods made something warm and liquid steal through his body.”

“Oh, Kitty, how nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking-glass House! I’m sure it’s got, oh! such beautiful things in it! Let’s pretend there’s a way of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty. Let’s pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why it’s turning into a sort of mist now, I declare! It’ll be easy enough to get through”

″‘And you look like a protagonist.’ She was talking as fast as she could think. ‘You look like a person who wins in the end. You’re so pretty, and so good. You have magic eyes,’ she whispered.”

“I thought that Elves were all for moon and stars: but this is more elvish than anything I ever heard tell of. I feel as if I was inside a song, if you take my meaning.”

“But nothing I have seen in the world has supported your pronouncements that love is more powerful than my kind of magic, Dumbledore.”

″‘You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!’ said Dumbledore loudly. ‘The only protection that can possibly work against the lure of power like Voldemort’s!‘”

“Howl was on the tossing, nearly sinking ship below. He was a tiny black figure now, leaning against the bucking mainmast. He let the Witch know she had missed by waving at her cheekily. The Witch saw him the instant he waved. Cloud, Witch, and all at once became a savagely swooping red bird, diving at the ship. The ship vanished. The mermaids sang a doleful scream. There was nothing but sulkily tossing water where the ship had been. But the diving bird was going too fast to stop. It plunged into the sea with a huge splash. Everyone on the quayside cheered.”

“And as much as I’d like to believe there’s a truth beyond illusion, I’ve come to believe that there’s no truth beyond illusion. Because, between ‘reality’ on the one hand, and the point where the mind strikes reality, there’s a middle zone, a rainbow edge where beauty comes into being, where two very different surfaces mingle and blur to provide what life does not: and this is the space where all art exists, and all magic.”

“Their magic. Their quest. Their awfulness and strangeness. Her raven boys.”

″‘Well, in our country,’ said Alice, still panting a little, ‘you’d generally get to somewhere else – if you ran very fast for a long time as we’ve been doing.’ ‘A slow sort of country!’ said the Queen. ‘Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!‘”

“Then she began looking about, and noticed that what could be seen from the old room was quite common and uninteresting, but that all the rest was as different as possible. For instance, the pictures on the wall next the fire seemed to be all alive, and the very clock on the chimney-piece (you know you can only see the back of it in the Looking-glass) had got the face of a little old man, and grinned at her.”

“The last figure of all was the most interesting—a woman even more richly dressed than the others, very tall (but every figure in that room was taller than the people of our world), with a look of such fierceness and pride that it took your breath away. Yet she was beautiful too. Years afterward, when he was an old man, Digory said he had never in all his life known a woman so beautiful. It is only fair to add that Polly always said she couldn’t see anything specially beautiful about her.”

“I suppose all the old fairy tales are more or less true. And you’re simply a wicked, cruel magician like the ones in the stories. Well, I’ve never read a story in which people of that sort weren’t paid out in the end, and I bet you will be.”

“It was too late. Exactly as he spoke, Polly’s hand went out to touch one of the rings. And immediately, without a flash or a noise or a warning of any sort, there was no Polly. Digory and his Uncle were alone in the room.”

“But what she noticed first was a bright red wooden tray with a number of rings on it. They were in pairs - a yellow one and a green one together, than a little space, and then another yellow one and another green one. They were no bigger than ordinary rings, and no one could help noticing them because they were so bright.”

“I must say this about that first fire. It was magic. Out of dead tinder and grass and sticks came a live warm light. It cracked and snapped and smoked and filled the woods with brightness. It lighted the trees and made them warm and friendly. It stood tall and bright and held back the night”

“For the rest of that day, whenever he looked at the things about him, and saw how ordinary and unmagical they were, he hardly dared to hope; but when he remembered the face of Aslan he did hope.”

“I am the great scholar, the magician, the adept, who is doing the experiment. Of course I need subjects to do it on. Bless my soul, you’ll be telling me next that I ought to have asked the guinea-pigs’ permission before I used them! No great wisdom can be reached without sacrifice.”

“Today I’m five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark I’m changed to five, abracadabra. Before that I was three, then two, then one, then zero. ‘Was I minus numbers?‘”

“It was a large room with three big windows and it was lined from floor to ceiling with books; more books than Lucy had ever seen before, tiny little books, fat and dumpy books, and books bigger than any church Bible you have ever seen, all bound in leather and smelling old and learned and magical. But she knew from her instructions that she need not bother about any of these. For the Book, the Magic Book, was lying on a reading-desk in the very middle of the room.”

“Like most modern people, I don’t believe in prophecy or magic and then spend half my time practicing it.”

“There’s a lot of magic between you, ain’t no denying that. And magic makes forgettin’ hard.”

″‘You could be fire,’ Shallan said. ‘I am a stick.’ The stick was not particularly eloquent.”

“Jasnah held up a finger to quiet her. ‘All things have three components: the soul, the body, and the mind. That place you saw, Shadesmar, is what we call the Cognitive Realm—the place of the mind.‘”

“Your spirit was somehow preserved just beyond the border of Death, and your body preserved as the wooden figurehead. Both necromantic and Free Magic would have been involved. Very powerful magic, on both counts. I am curious as to why it was used on you.”

“Five Great Charters knit the land together linked, hand in hand One in the people who wear the crown Two in the folk who keep the Dead down Three and Five became stone and mortar Four sees all in frozen water.”

“And though my powers wane with the ebb of time, I always know when one Abhorsen falls and another takes their place. [...] Even if he has not passed the Final Gate, he will walk in life not more.”

“Be inside by nightfall. Lock all doors and windows. Deny entry to strangers. Shed light inside and out. Prepare candles and lanterns fro when the electricity fails. Wear silver. If caught outdoors, find running water.

“Well some days it’s not true. Maybe today you’re more in love with magic. I like being able to tell the difference, it makes the days it is true mean something.”

“The only thing was, she didn’t really want to see the future. What she wanted was to see something no one else could see or would see, and maybe that was asking for more magic that was in the world.”

“The third stage is sometimes called the effect, or the prestige, and this is the product of magic. If a rabbit is pulled from a hat, the rabbit, which apparently did not exist before the trick was performed, can be said to be the prestige of that trick.”

“Our goddess of the moon is gifted with magic, with power over the dead. She could banish the dreams, if she wished. She did not.”

“Love isn’t magic. Just like my family, just like my place in the universe, it’s something that I can’t keep, can’t make last. I would rather lose Ry before I ever have him.”

″‘Magic,’ declared Miss Pefko. ‘I’m sorry to hear a member of the Laboratory family using that brackish, medieval world,’ said Dr. Breed.”

“For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men.”

″‘Hmm!’ said the Fairy Crustacea. ‘Wit, Charm, Courage, Health, Wisdom, Grace ... Good gracious, poor child! Well, thank goodness my magic is stronger than anyone else’s.’ She raised her twisty coral stick and waved it three times over the cradle of the seventh princess. ‘My child,’ said the Fairy Crustacea, ‘I am going to give you something that will probably bring you more happiness than all these fal-lals and fripperies put together. You shall be Ordinary!’

“Read this to yourself. Read it silently. Don’t move your lips. Don’t make a sound. Listen to yourself. Listen without hearing anything. What a wonderfully weird thing, huh?”

“In Louis Creed’s memory that one moment always held a magical quality--partly, perhaps, because it really was magical, but mostly because the rest f the evening was so wild. In the next three hours, neither peace nor magic made an appearance.”

“There’s still magic in a heart that’s been broken”

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”

“We are 93 million miles from the sun. 238 thousand miles from the moon. A moment from finding magic and one kiss away from reaching our dreams.”

“I would like to make fun plans with you, but then just do ordinary things; or plan ordinary things but find we have stepped through a wardrobe into a world of ordinary magic.”

“Magic does that. It wastes you away. Once it grips you by the ear, the real world gets quieter and quieter, until you can hardly hear it at all.”

“Magic-everything was magic, and it broke my heart.”

“I say these things, and the world listens, Masha. Because my magic is as strong as an arm. I am never denied.”

“A little magic can take you a long way.”

“When two people meet and fall in love, there’s a sudden rush of magic. Magic is just naturally present then. We tend to feed on that gratuitous magic without striving to make any more. One day we wake up and find that the magic is gone. We hustle to get it back, but by then it’s usually too late, we’ve used it up.”

“That was her magic— she could still see the sunset even on those darkest days.”

“What a fool you are, Basta! I’m not talking about children’s magic. I mean the magic of the written word. Nothing is more powerful for good or evil, I do assure you.”

“After James Henry Trotter had been living with his aunts for three whole years there came a morning when something rather peculiar happened to him.”

″ And now suddenly, the whole place, the whole garden seemed to be alive with magic.”

“And yet”—she looked into the fire—“there was something about him—perhaps because we were brought up in India among mystery and magic and legends—something that made us think that he saw things that other people could not see; sometimes we’d know he was teasing, but at other times—well, we were not so sure…”

“These COOL, BLUE, MAGIC sunglasses made the blues go away. They help you see things in a whole new way.”

“How had the People ever left the surface? Sometimes she wished that her ancestors had stayed to fight it out with the Mud People. But there were too many of them. Unlike fairies who could produce only a single child every twenty years, Mud People bred like rodents. Numbers would subdue even magic. Although she was enjoying the night air, Holly could taste traces of pollutants. The Mud People destroyed everything they came into contact with. Of course they didn’t live in the mud anymore. Not in this country, at least. Oh no. Big fancy dwellings with rooms for everything—rooms for sleeping, rooms for eating, even a room to go to the toilet! Indoors! Holly shuddered. Imagine going to the toilet inside your own house. Disgusting!”

Arthur Penhaligon’s first days at his new school don’t go too well, particularly when a fiendish Mister Monday appears, gives Arthur a magical clock hand, and then orders his gang of dog-faced goons to chase Arthur around and get it back.

“Artemis believed that with today’s technology the Book could be translated. And with this translation you could begin to exploit a whole new group of creatures. . . . Artemis was perhaps the only person alive who could take full advantage of his recent acquisition. He still retained a childlike belief in magic, tempered by an adult determination to exploit it. If there was anybody capable of relieving the fairies of some of their magical gold, it was Artemis Fowl the second.”

“Mr. Duncan put the magic pebble in an iron safe. Some day they might want to use it, but really, for now, what more could they wish for? They all had all that they wanted.”

“He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk, And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;”

“So don’t waste your time saying foolish magic words. YOU ought to be saying some plain simple words!”

“And the moment the King spoke those words, something happened...Maybe there was something magic in those simple words, ‘I’m sorry.’ Maybe there was something magic in those simple words, ‘It’s all my fault.‘”

“Won’t look like rain. Won’t look like snow. Won’t look like fog. That’s all we know. We just can’t tell you any more. We’ve never made oobleck before.”

“They can do it for me! Bartholomew Cubbins, blow my secret whistle! Quick! Call my royal magicians!”

“She could cure a headache, with oil and water and a hairpin. She made special potions for the girls who wanted husbands.”

“Everyone get forks and plates and platters and bowls. Pasta for all at Strega Nona’s house. Big Anthony has made the magic pasta pot work.”

“Bubble, bubble, pasta pot, Boil me some pasta, nice and hot, I’m hungry and it’s time to sup, Boil enough pasta to fill me up.”

“As for what experimental theology was, Lyra had no more idea than the urchins. She had formed the notion that it was concerned with magic, with the movements of the stars and planets, with tiny particles of matter, but that was guesswork, really.”

“Although all the people in town talked about her in whispers, they all went to see her if they had troubles. Even the priest and the sister of the convent went, because Strega Nona did have a magic touch.”

“Enough, enough, pasta pot, I have my pasta, nice and hot, So simmer down my pot of clay, Until I’m hungry another day.”

“But too bad for Big Anthony, because he didn’t see Strega Nona blow three kisses to the magic pasta pot.”

“I’m always seeing the world with magic eyes.”

“Yesterday you shot my children. You shot all six of my children.”

“Then I get very, very hot all over … Then the tip of the forefinger of my right hand begins to tingle most terribly … And suddenly a sort of flash comes out of me, a quick white flash, like something electric. It jumps out and touches the person who has made me cross … And after that the Magic Finger is upon him or her, and things begin to happen”

“My two little children are up here with us. You wouldn’t shoot my children!”

“I PUT THE MAGIC FINGER ON THEM ALL!”

“The Magic Finger is something I have been able to do all my life. I can’t tell you just how I do it, because I don’t even know myself. But it always happens when I get cross, when I see red…”

“The Magic Finger is something I have been able to do all my life.”

″ ‘You are a stupid little girl!’ Mrs. Winter said. ‘I am not a stupid little girl!’ I cried. ‘I am a very nice little girl!’ ‘Go and stand in the corner,; Mrs. Winter said. Then I got cross, and I saw red, and I put the Magic Finger on Mrs. Winter good and strong, and almost at once …”

“Have you never dreamed of someone coming to you and telling you that you were no mortal child, but one made of magic? Have you never dreamed about being taken from your pathetic little life to one of vast greatness?”

″‘Good children,’ the wolf begged, ‘pluck some for me.’ ‘But Po Po, gingko is magic only when it is plucked directly from the tree. You must come and pluck it from the tree yourself.‘”

“The sky changed to a strange green colour. There was a curious mesmerizing atmosphere as the green light filled the pools of the brown bog away at a little distance to his right. Something nudged at the borders of his mind and for a little while, he was puzzled. Then he realized that his surroundings held a definite element of menace. ‘It’s not the students,’ he said suddenly and loudly. ‘It’s magic.‘”

“They say the people could fly. Say that long ago in Africa, some of the people knew magic.”

“The people who could fly kept their power, although they shed their wings. They kept their secret magic in the land of slavery.”

“She flew clumsily at first, with the child now held tightly in her arms. Then she felt the magic, the African mystery.”

“The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”

“So If the water genie told Haroun about the Ocean of the Stream of Stories, and even though he was full of a sense of hopelessness and failure the magic of the Ocean began to have an effect on Haroun. ”

“Gwendolen put out her hand at the same moment. She did not say anything. Neither did Mrs. Sharp. Both their hands stood still in the air. There was a feeling of fierce invisible struggle.”

″‘You’ve got a real talent for magic, dearie,’ she said, beaming at Gwendolen, ‘and I wouldn’t be doing my duty by you if I let it go to waste. We must see about a teacher for you right away.‘”

“She looked into this book and she looked into that. There was magic for thin and magic for fat, and magic for tall and magic for small, but the magic she was looking for wasn’t there at all.”

“After sitting on him and tripping over him, Winnie turns Wilbur into a green cat. But then, he goes out into the grass. Winnie is going to need magic to make sure she can always see Wilbur.”

“And then suddenly it stopped, and he was left standing dazed with his nose almost touching a very ordinary beech twig. He knew then that the Dark had its own way of putting even an Old One outside Time for a space, if they needed a space for their own magic.”

“Grandma Poss made bush magic. She made wombats blue and kookaburras pink. She made dingoes smile and emus shrink. But the best magic of all was the magic that made Hush INVISIBLE.”

“And into Will’s mind, whirling him up on a wind blowing through and around the whole of Time, came the story of the Old Ones. He saw them from the beginning when magic was at large in the world; magic that was the power of rocks and fire and water and living things, so that the first men lived in it and with it, as a fish lives in the water.”

“Magic slithers inside me. Venomous, like a thousand spiders crawling over my skin. It wants more of me.”

“But when your entire world is shattering, a little bit of magic is...nothing.”

“What secret rule could be keeping Nonna and Mamma, mother and daughter, from seeing each other? What was it that I didn’t know? Whenever I got back home, Mamma would interrogate me about Nonna Eia’s health. She bombarded me with questions, sometimes embarrassing ones. Like, ‘Did she have a strange smell? Are you sure she’s keeping clean?”

“Magic. It was all real.”

“The air around him looks alive. Like he is drenched in magic.”

“She turned her back and put the water on to boil. But not before I got a glimpse of her lips tightening. An ugly grimace. My sugar-and-spice grandmother with such a nasty look. I feel guilty. But I couldn’t ask, Nanna, do you and Mamma hate each other? How could I say such a thing?”

“Magic. Real. Here.”

“Your honors, I am able by secret magic to enchant all creatures living beneath the sun that creep or swim or fly or run. What I can do most wizards can’t. Chiefly I reserve my charm for creatures that’ll do you harm - the mole and toad, the newt and viper - and people call me the Pied Piper,”

“Into the streets the Piper stepped, smiling first a little smile, as if he knew what magic slept in his still pipe all the while, for there his secret spells were kept. Then blowing soft, his lips he wrinkled, and green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled like candle flames where salt is sprinkled.”

“So she took out of her pocket the magic fish-bone that had been dried and rubbed and polished till it shone like mother-of-pearl; and gave it one little kiss and wished it was quarter day.”

“The sad group passed slowly out of sight; but as it disappeared there fell upon the ear the sounds of sweet music, lovelier far than she had heard before - lovelier than the magic cuckoo’s most lovely songs - and somehow in the music, it seemed to the child’s fancy there were mingled the soft strains of a woman’s voice.”

“The sad group passed slowly out of sight; but as it disappeared there fell upon the ear the sounds of sweet music, lovelier far than she had heard before - lovelier than the magic cuckoo’s most lovely songs - and somehow in the music, it seemed to the child’s fancy there were mingled the soft strains of a woman’s voice.”

“Mirrors work magic. Repeat the last three words (or the critical one to three words) of what someone has just said. We fear what’s different and are drawn to what’s similar. Mirroring is the art of insinuating similarity, which facilitates bonding. Use mirrors to encourage the other side to empathize and bond with you, keep people talking, buy your side time to regroup, and encourage your counterparts to reveal their strategy.”

″‘Life is pain,’ he said, sadly. ‘But it’s also magic, Papa.‘”

“Can you believe there was a time when no one in the world knew about it? A time when he was just an ordinary boy called Nikolas, living in the middle of nowhere, or the middle of Finland, doing nothing with magic except believing in it?”

“They hadn’t travelled far when someone squawked and cursed. This was followed by uneasy laughter. Something flew past Yukin, its wings pushing it through the air like a swift arrow.”

“When you have magic powers and know it, it can be a fine feeling, like a pleasant tingling inside. But in order to enjoy that tingling, you have to know just how much magic you have and what the rules are for using it.”

“Harry’s bath was the soapiest one he’d ever had. It worked like magic.”

″‘The thing is,’ Mark went on, ‘was it just an accident, or did we want so much to be magic we got that way, somehow? The thing is, each of us ought to make a wish. That’ll prove it one way or the other.‘”

“Magic. Magic had happened to him. He knew it would one day. He had always believed in magic, even when the others had laughed at him, laughed because he was the eldest and ought to know better.”

“There is no magic when one no longer believes.”

“And then the most extraordinary thing of all happened! The chair they were in began to creak and groan, and suddenly it rose up in the air, with the two children in it!”

″‘You see, magic doesn’t happen often- not once in a blue moon,’ Sheila went on, trying to get things clear. ‘I expect there isn’t another magic ship like this in the whole world.‘”

“Oh, Peter, to think we’ve got a magic chair- a wishing-chair!”

″‘I think you were meant to keep it Peter,’ she said softly. ‘I think that’s part of the magic.‘”

“It was the most curious shop they had ever been in! Fancy keeping all those queer things in boxes! Really, there must be magic about somewhere.”

“The magic properties of this ring were uncommonly strong, for no sooner had Bulbo put it on, but lo and behold, he appeared a personable, agreeable young Prince enough-with a fine complexion, fair hair, rather stout, and with bandy legs; but these were encased in a such a beautiful pair of yellow morocco boots that nobody remarked them.”

“The Man went to sleep in front of the fire ever so happy; but the Woman sat up, combing her hair. She took the bone of the shoulder of mutton - the big fat blade bone - and she looked at the wonderful marks on it, and she threw more wood on the fire, and she made a Magic. She made the first Singing Magic in the world.”

“You may be sure there are mummies there, and very likely magic writings in their hands. I wish we could get a magic writing. Then we could do anything, and we could know all the secrets.”

“I’ll play a game of make-believe and use my magic powers!”

“Colin and Susan realize at last that they are the key to the Weirdstone’s return. But how can two children defeat the Morrigan and her deadly brood?”

“George didn’t say a word. He felt quite trembly. He knew something tremendous had taken place that morning. For a few brief moments he had touched with the very tips of his fingers the edge of a magic world.”

“People are naïve about such things...and they would rather write them off as evil than attempt to understand them. An unfortunate truth, but a truth nonetheless.”

“Love is the most powerful magic. Above all else, remember that. It will always guide you where you need to go.”

“This giant had some sort of magic in his legs.”

“Magic is desire made real.”

“Certainly the latter history of the Alvingtons seems to prove the truth of the old story of a curse. But it is also said that on Midsummer Eve ‘twain shall the magic Horn retrieve,’ and this is what the twins accomplish.”

“Really, my dear count, you seem to throw a sort of magic influence over all in which you are concerned; when I listen to you, existence no longer seems reality, but a waking dream.”