spells Quotes

“How could we tell if we were the pawns of someone’s darker game? ”

“Talking, talking, spinning a spell, pale skin of words that closes me in like a coffin.”

″[Sophie] settled herself comfortably in the chair while the demon thought. It thought aloud, in a little, crackling, flickering murmur, which reminded Sophie rather of the way she had talked to her stick when she walked here, and it blazed while it thought with such a glad and powerful roaring that she dozed again. […] The demon at length fell to singing a gentle, flickering little song. It was not in any language Sophie knew—or she thought not, until she distinctly heard the word “saucepan” in it several times—and it was very sleepy-sounding. Sophie fell into a deep sleep, with a slight suspicion that she was being bewitched now, as well as beguiled, but it did not bother her particularly. She would be free of the spell soon …”

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

“Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs, are subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air.”

“He put it between his teeth, gave his ponytail a good tug, and --crack, crack-- broke the shell into many pieces. Adroitly removing a few fibers from the kernel, he handed it to the princess with a low bow, closed his eyes, and took a step backward. The princess swallowed the kernel, and wonder of wonders!”

“One piece of good fortune never comes alone. Take my word for it, the nut Krakatuk isn’t the only thing we’ve found; we’ve also found the young man who’s going to crack it between his teeth and give Princess Pirlipat the beauty kernel. I am referring to none other than your cousin’s son,”

“The astronomer gazed at the stars and, with the help of Drosselmeier, who was also versed in such matters, drew up Princess Pirlipat’s horoscope. This was no easy matter, for the lines of her destiny crisscrossed and tangles, but at last-oh joy!- as last it was revealed that all Princess Pirlipat had to do to throw off the spell that had made her ugly and to recover her beauty was to eat the sweet kernel of the nut Krakatuk.”

“She met her friends going to the party, Bess, Jess, Tess and Cress. They landed on a hill in the moonlight to make the spell.”

“There was a flash and a bang. Something had gone wrong.”

“Each of them had brought something to put in the cauldron. This is what they put in: a frog, a beetle, a worm, a bat and a spider. They all stirred the cauldron as they chanted their spell.”

“She got out of bed to dress for the spell party. She put on her black stockings, her big black shoes, her long black cloak and her tall black hat.”

“While the bear slept he gradually began to grow smaller. Inch by inch and little by little Bruce dwindled away. He kept shrinking and shriveling until he was down to the size of a possum. And still he kept shrinking, When the diminishing spell was finally finished the bear had dwindled all the way down to the size of a chipmunk.”

“For now he understood that the elf had bewitched him, and that the creature whose image he saw in the glass- was he, himself.”

“What thou see’st when thou dost wake, Do it for thy true-love take.”

“By earth, moon, and stone, bless this hearth, bless this home.”

“He was practicing away one evening when Gwendolen stormed in and shrieked a spell in his face. Cat found, to his dismay, that he was holding a large striped cat by the tail.”

“But once or twice, Cat found the odd spell lying about. Then he could not resist trying it. He would have liked to have had just a little of Gwendolen’s talent.”

“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.”

“You have great power inborn in you, and you used that power wrongly, to work a spell over which you had no control, not knowing how that spell affects the balance of light and dark, life and death, good and evil. And you were moved to do this by pride and by hate. Is it any wonder the result was ruin?”

“And that was how they found the Hobgoblin’s Hat and took it home with them, without guessing for one moment that this would cast a spell on the Valley of the Moomins, and that before long they would all see strange things...”

“But Inman thought all words had some issue, so he walked and said the spell, aiming it out against the world at large, all his enemies. He repeated it over and over to himself as some people, in fear or hope, will say a single prayer endlessly until it burns itself in their thoughts so that they can work or even carry on a conversation with it still running unimpeded...”