Quotes About Magic

The Magic Circle by John William Waterhouse [...] stuck in my mind because of the subject's flagrant health and safety violation. As any competent practitioner will tell you, you always complete your protective circle *before* you start your workings.

Carnivorous unicorns, I thought.

What are my options?" she asked as I climbed into the driver's seat. "Meaningless euphemisms at one end and your full-on Unseen University at the other," I said. "The Unseen University is a bit like Hogwart's—" Stephanopoulos cut me off. "I have read some Terry Pratchett," she said.

Something round and dirty and white was resting near my foot. It was a skull. I picked it up. 'Is that you, Nicholas?' I asked. 'Put that down, Peter,' said Nightingale. 'You don't know where it's been.

Then you check for paraphernalia, always bearing in mind that the line between cosplay, magic practice, and niche sex play can get pretty blurry.

I ended up learning magic because you can't trust the British to keep to an agreement over the long term.

What's it a charm for?' she asked. The man thought about this for a moment. 'It's your basic all-enveloping protection charm,' he said, his hands describing a cupped circle in the air. 'For protection against...' 'Envelopes?' said Abigail.

I'm working on several theories," I said. "But I'm currently favoring the hypothesis that the moon has a seemingly arbitrary effect on magic because it likes to piss me off." "That's a theory with a high degree of applicability to other spheres of life," he said. "Yes it is," I said, and we spontaneously fist

I don't know why Nightingale was so surprised—I barely knew four and a half spells and you couldn't have got me to give it up, and that's despite close brushes with death by vampire, hanging, malignant spirit, riot, tigerman, and the ever-present risk of overdoing the magic and getting a brain aneurysm.

So magic is real," I said. "Which makes you a … what?" "A wizard." "Like Harry Potter?" Nightingale sighed. "No," he said. "Not like Harry Potter." "In what way?" "I'm not a fictional character," said Nightingale.

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. Eden Phillpotts 'A Shadow Passes' (1919)

I was pleased to see that even back in the glory days of the Folly people left their mugs of tea on their magical textbooks.

Never diss somebody's mum, never play chess with the Kurdish mafia, and never lie down with a woman who's more magical than you are. I

An argument," said Dr. Walid. "It's an argument of wizards.

What frustrated me was the thought that with three thousand years of history someone in China, some monk in a monastery halfway up a mountain, must have developed a magic kata, a physical expression of formae. Or at least have got close enough to explain all those legendary swordsmen and their inexplicable desire to roost on the tops of bamboo trees.

Welcome to the Folly," he said. "Official home of English magic since 1775." "And your patron saint is Sir Isaac Newton?" I asked. Nightingale grinned. "He was our founder and the first man to systemize the practice of magic." "I was taught that he invented modern science," I said. "He did both," said Nightingale. "That's the nature of genius." Nightingale

Paul makes a noise—it's all he's got left, but I've taught myself to understand him and he wants me to keep reading. I tune out EastEnders and concentrate on Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett. It's his favourite and I could do most of it off by heart, except it makes me cry at the end because now I know what magic can really do and what it can't.

Fuck me,' I said out loud, 'I'm in fairyland.

Then you throw the bloody thing as far as you can, hopefully outside the area of immediate magical effect, where two minutes later it basically phones the Met control room and screams help, help, serious magic shenanigans here – send help – preferably Nightingale.

We did an hour of practice, at the end of which I was capable of flinging a fireball down the range at the dizzying speed of a bumblebee who'd met his pollen quota and was taking a moment to enjoy the view.

Nobody knows why some systems—rivers, forests, possibly the London Underground but we're not sure—acquire a genius loci. Not even the genii locorum themselves know the why and the how of it—they only know it happens.

Are there rules?' 'No gods, no staffs, first man to stay down for the count loses and we suspend the contest if the building collapses.' - on magical duels

You do magic by learning formae which are like shapes in your mind that have an effect on the physical universe.

I released the fireball and there was a muffled thump from behind the target. A wisp of smoke curled up towards the ceiling. Behind me Molly sniggered. We did an hour of practice, at the end of which I was capable of flinging a fireball down the range at the dizzying speed of a bumblebee who'd met his pollen quota and was taking a moment to enjoy the view.