Magus Quotes & Sayings

A mark on one arm like the one I bore. Here, in this time, the mark of sorcery, the mark of a magus. The small, homely scar of a smallpox vaccination. — Diana Gabaldon

What had always attracted me in the opposite sex was what they tried to hide, what provoked all the metaphorical equivalents of seducing them out of their clothes into nakedness. — John Fowles

One of the towering figures of the age of Enlightenment was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, known to this day in German-speaking lands as the poet of princes and prince of poets. Unlike Voltaire, he openly practiced esoteric disciplines, particularly alchemy. He wrote a famous verse about the Cathars, which translated says: "There were those who knew the Father. What became of them? Oh, they took them and burned them!" Goethe's chief work, of course, is his Faust. As noted in chapter 8, the figure of Faust was inspired by the image of the early Gnostic teacher Simon Magus, one of whose honorific names was Faustus. While in Christopher Marlowe's sixteenth-century play, — Stephan A. Hoeller

Ridiculous to think what indignities I would suffer in silence, if I knew that I was to be rewarded with an oversize bucket of hot water, the magus said as he settled into the bath the servants had filled for him. — Megan Whalen Turner

Ere Babylon was dust, The Magus Zoroaster, my dead child, Met his own image walking in the garden, That apparition, sole of men, he saw. — Percy Bysshe Shelley

The lamplight gleamed on the Magus' white grin. People like to watch the pretty puppets, Superior. Even a glimpse of the puppeteer can be most upsetting for them. Why, they might even suddenly notice the strings around their own wrists — Joe Abercrombie

FAUSTUS. To have fooled the philosopher.
MAGUS. One finds, in my profession, sir, the greater the intellect, the more ease in its misdirection.
FAUSTUS. One finds the same in mine. — David Mamet

The gods are jealous and men are fools. — Marc Gascoigne

All the things man has made are eventually destroyed. — Megan Whalen Turner

She met the magus's stunned look with a smile. The Thieves of Eddis have always been uncomfortable allies to the throne, Magus. There is the niggling fear that if you fall out with a Thief, he might see it as his right and responsibility to remove you. There are some checks, of course. There is only ever one Thief. They are prohibited from owning any property. Their training inevitably generates the isolation that makes them independent, but also keeps them from forming alliances that might become threats to the throne. It is not the folly you might think. — Megan Whalen Turner

Sometimes in the company of others I find a disagreeable spirit of competitiveness kicks in and each person is shamed into spending rather more than he would have wished. This is a historically established syndrome, of course. One Magus going to Bethlehem would probably have sprung for a box of After Eights. Three Magi on the same trip found themselves laden with gold, frankincense and myrrh and bitterly comtemplating their overdrafts. — James Hamilton-Paterson

He thought that when he had healed sufficiently, and withdrawn from the capital, he might write the magus a letter and open a correspondence on Euclid, or Thales, or the new idea from the north, that the sun and not the Earth might be the centre of the universe. — Megan Whalen Turner

He looked at their shabby clothes in puzzlement.
"We were traveling anonymously for safety - " explained the magus.
"But surely - "
" - and then we were robbed on the road."
"Ah," said the king, "the danger in being anonymous. — Megan Whalen Turner

A sin is not mortified when it is only diverted. Simon Magus for a season left his sorceries; but his covetousness and ambition, that set him on work, remained still, and would have been acting another way. Therefore Peter tells him, "I perceive thou art in the gall of bitterness;" - "Notwithstanding — John Owen

Welcome," said the magus. "Would you like some dried beef, some dried beef, or some dried beef for lunch?" "Oh, I'll take stuffed pigeons in sauce, thank you, and some decent wine to drink. None of that cheap stuff, please." The magus handed me an almost empty paper package of dried beef and half of a loaf of bread. "Enjoy your meal," he said. — Megan Whalen Turner

It was a race between the tortoise and the hare, but the tortoise had just enough head start, and he had the magus to drag him along. — Megan Whalen Turner

Ambiades, I realized, was the kind
of person who liked to put people in a hierarchy, and he wanted me to
understand that I was at the bottom of his. He was supposed to treat me
politely in spite of my subservient position, and I was supposed to be
grateful.

For my part, I wanted Ambiades to understand that I considered
myself a hierarchy of one. I might bow to the superior force of the
magus and Pol, but I wasn't going to bow to him. Neither of us moved. — Megan Whalen Turner

Eschewing ceremony, Eugenides said, "You shot the ambassador?"
"You gave me the gun," protested Sounis.
"I didn't mean for you to shoot the ambassador with it!" Eugenides told him.
"Oh, how our carefully laid plans go astray," murmured the magus.
"You shut up!" said Gen, laughing. — Megan Whalen Turner

I have been wrong and Simon Magus has been right. — Toni Pike

Thanks to His Majesty, the magus said, and my father seemed startled at the correction but not displeased. He looked thoroughly satisfied and very much like Ina when she has all her embroidery threads arranged to her satisfaction. He looked so pleased that I checked over my shoulder to see if there might be someone else behind me who had drawn his attention. — Megan Whalen Turner

The Magus must had eyes like a thief because he told Pol to stop and dismount to walk alongside me, one hand resting just above my knee ready to shake me if I fell asleep. He shook hard and resorted to pinching periodically. — Megan Whalen Turner

To draw from the world below is fraught with peril. The Magus — Joe Abercrombie

Turns out Valhalla had been sending its recycling to home plate at Fenway, which could explain any problems the Red Sox were having with their offensive lineup. — Rick Riordan

Did you send Attolia to me at the farewell?" Eddis asked.
"Not I," said Gen quietly. "The magus. I thought you knew that you loved him - the two of you have been like magnets drawing ever nearer to each other since you met - but the magus was concerned. He thought the grief of leave-taking might surprise you."
"I feel very stupid." She leaned back into his embrace. "'I look forward to hearing of your adventures.'" She shook her head in disgust and sniffed. "I should have had something better to say, something ... more appropriate."
He couldn't disagree. Sounis had clearly hoped for some message of her affection to carry with him. "You could write him a letter," he said. "A fast horse will catch him before he reaches the pass. — Megan Whalen Turner

I want you to steal something."
I smiled. "Do you want the king's seal? I can get it for you."
"If I were you," said the magus, "I'd stop bragging about that." His voice grated.
My smile grew. The gold ring with the engraved ruby had been in his safekeeping when I had stolen it away. — Megan Whalen Turner

It is like the oak that hardens itself and bears up against the storm. It is weather-beaten and scarred and confident like a sea-captain. Also it straineth like a hound in the leash. It hath pride and great subtlety. Yea, and glee also! Let the Magus act thus in his conjuration. Let him sit and conjure; let him draw himself together in that forcefulness; let him rise next swollen and straining; let him dash back the hood from his head and fix his basilisk eye upon the sigil of the demon. Then let him sway the force of him to and fro like a satyr in silence, until the Word burst from his throat. — Anonymous

If a man seeks to change the world, he should first understand it.' The apprentice trotted the words out as if by rote, evidently relieved to be asked a question he knew the answer to. 'The smith must learn the ways of metals, the carpenter the ways of wood, or their work will be of but little worth. Base magic is wild and dangerous, for it comes from the Other Side, and to draw from the world below is fraught with peril. The Magus tempers magic with knowledge, and thus produces High Art, but like the smith or the carpenter, he should only seek to change that which he understands. With each thing he learns, his power is increased. So must the Magus strive to learn all, to understand the world entire. The tree is only as strong as its root, and knowledge is the root of power. — Joe Abercrombie

Why did you come if not to murder my king?"
"I came to steal his magus."
"You can't," said the magus in question.
"I can steal anything," Eugenides corrected him, "even with one hand. — Megan Whalen Turner

The Aztecs and the Elizabethans looked into their mirrors to discern danger. Today those who peer into the future want only relief from anxiety. Unable to face the prospect that the cycles of war will continue, they are desperate to find a pattern of improvement in history. It is only natural that believers in reason, lacking any deeper faith and too feeble to tolerate doubt, should turn to the sorcery of numbers. Happily there are some who are ready to assist them. Just as the Elizabethan magus transcribed tables shown to him by angels, the modern scientific scryer deciphers numerical auguries of angels hidden in ourselves. — John N. Gray

If finding a woman in your bed is so distressing, magus, you should rethink the direction your life's taken. — Brandon Nolta

Walking alongside his apprentice's horse, Sethil Longmere, magus of the Third Circle, Magi Master of Dormir's army, and a man who had seen more years than most men could count, did his best to keep his apprentice Rousche from falling off his gelding. The dun horse had a sure foot and a good temper, but it seemed unlikely the animal was used to a grown man lying face first in its mane, legs sprawled behind, dangling with each step. — Clifton Hill

The gossip will carry to Attolian spies, who will report to Relius, Attolia's master of spies, and he will carry the news to her."
"Her secretary of the archives," murmured the magus.
"Hmm?" asked the queen.
"Secretary of the archives, Relius. Master of spies is so-"
"Accurate?"
"Overtly direct," said the magus.
Eddis laughed. — Megan Whalen Turner

I was not so comfortable with my new authority that I could say 'We eat the chicken now!' but the magus had seen that I was considering it ...
"My purse is full enough," said the magus, "to keep you supplied with roast chickens."
"So, so, so," I said. "We know who the power behind the throne is," and the magus laughed.
"You eat more than Gen did after prison," he said.
"I have more sympathy with him all the time. Are you going to finish that drumstick?" I asked.
"I am. Stop staring at it. — Megan Whalen Turner

The most fundamental, basic need in magick, is the development of the will. The magus says, "I will, and not heaven nor hell can stop me." It is in this forming and growing, creating, of the will, where heaven and hell learns to follow the will of the magus. A person who wants to develop the soul must never say, "Maybe" or "If I see a sign" because the master creates his own signs. If you need a star to align in front of a tree because that to you would be a sign, then you make the star align with the tree, if not in this world, in the other worlds and in the other dimensions. There are no "ifs" and there are no "maybes" there are only "I wills." This is the basic platform of magick, and most people never get past it, because not all can. — C. JoyBell C.

You'll have to pardon me," the magus said. "But with your country at war I can't see how any of it really matters."
Standing up, Eugenides pulled the papers from the magus's hands. "It matters, because I can't do anything, anymore, for this country, and it matters," he yelled as he threw the papers back to his desk, "because I only have one hand and it isn't even the right one!" Turning, he picked an inkpot off the desk and threw it to shatter on the door of his wardrobe, spraying black ink across the pale wood and onto the wall. Black drops like rain stained the sheets of his bed.
...
Eddis sighed. "Will you sit down and stop shouting?" she asked.
"I'll stop shouting. I won't sit down. I might need to throw more inkpots. — Megan Whalen Turner

Ah," said the magus, understanding at once. "I see that he means to be prepared if he meets him again."
"Surely that's unlikely," said Sounis.
"I don't think unlikely means to him what it does to the rest of us," said the magus. — Megan Whalen Turner

'The Magus,' usually described as a book for the young, is about learning that the world is a mysterious and limitless place, beyond our control, and all the more exciting - and daunting - because of it. — Sharon Bolton

A film about the love generation - the birthday party of the Aquarian Age showing actual ceremonies to make Lucifer rise. Lucifer is the Light god, not the devil - the Rebel Angel behind what's happening in the world today. His message is that the key of joy is disobedience. Isis (Nature) wakes. Osiris (Death) answers. Lilith (Destroyer) climbs to the place of Sacrifice. The Magus activates the circle and Lucifer - Bringer of Light - breaks through. — Kenneth Anger

The magus said thoughtfully, "That lying little monster complained about everything: the food, the horses, the blankets, the company. He even found fault with the stories I told by the fire but I cannot recall that he ever once complained about the climbing."
"So many things are obvious in retrospect, aren't they?" I said. — Megan Whalen Turner

The flat top of the hill was scattered with the bodies of dead men in the uniforms of Sounis and Eddis. The outposts of both armies had met here. As I stood staring, I thought, These are my dead. All of them. The battle hadn't been unanticipated or forced on me, as the raid in the villa had been. I had chosen it. These men, Eddisian and Sounisian alike, had died for my decisions.
When the magus stepped from the bushes toward the back part of the hill, I was more than horrified. I was perilously close to distraught.
...
When he pulled away and looked into my face, I knew that he would tell me that I was Sounis and that I needed to pull myself together.
"Your uncle," he said, "in all the years I saw him rule, never had a moment of self-doubt. Never a regret for a single life lost. Do you understand?"
I understood that I didn't want to be my uncle. — Megan Whalen Turner

Red hair like yours is unusual in all corners of the world. Other folk have often feared the red-haired as witches, or called them soul-less... But, it's the perfect color for a mage!

Red is the color of the Earth itself, and of the fire that burns within it -- and of the blood in our own veins"

- Lindel, Ancient Magus Bride, V4 — Kore Yamazaki

For no matter how many battles had been won or lost, no matter how many friends and soldiers killed, every battle felt like the first. And I realized that it wasn't the training, nor the pain of seeing friends die, nor the will to win that made the men fight, but their will to survive that made them soldiers. — Magus Guidan

I am your stone of necessity calling up spirits from rain puddles - your Magus of words — John Geddes

Let those love now who've never loved; let those who've loved, love yet again. — John Fowles

When you love me, it's as if God forgave me for being the mess I am. — John Fowles

I find that I was wrong in suggesting that a Master of the Temple had a right to enter the temple of a Magus or an Ipsissimus. On the contrary, the rule that holds below, holds also above. The higher you go, the greater is the distance from one grade to another. — Aleister Crowley

Write and keep writing, not because people will like it, but because someone may get a kick out of thrashing your book. — Magus Tor

The Magus,the sorcerer, the alchemist, are seized with the fascination of the unknown; and they desire a greatness that is inaccessible to mankind. — W. Somerset Maugham

To the pure, all things are pure," Antryg remarked, in Magister Magus' best soothsayer voice, "and to the unimaginative, all things are devilish. — Barbara Hambly

That won't be necessary," said the magus coolly. "No one would mistake you for anything but a tool, Gen. If a sword is well made, does the credit go to the blacksmith or to his hammer? How much smarter than a hammer can you be if you flaunt the proof of your crimes in a wineshop?" I flushed, and he laughed. If I hadn't already been angry, it might not have seemed unkind laughter. — Megan Whalen Turner

You can't break into and rob Magus Silvanus's town house."
"I never said I was."
"You didn't have to say it; I know what you're thinking."
I half smiled. "And because I'm a Benares, you assumed that I'd opt for the larcenous approach."
"No, ma'am." He grinned. "Because you're you."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "How long have you known me, Vegard?"
"A little over two weeks. — Lisa Shearin

I had got away from what I hated, but I hadn't found where I loved, and so I pretended that there was nowhere to love. — John Fowles