Quotes & Sayings About Wizardry

That's my cousin, dickwad," Agent Jaxon Tremain said from Hector's left.
Had Whacky Jacky been next to Dallas, he would have drilled his knuckles into the guy's bicep.
"Watch your mouth."
"By watch my mouth do you mean I should invite your cuz back to my place for a game of Hide the Magic Wand, or my new personal fave, Puff on the Magic Dragon?" Dallas asked conversationally.
"And I know what you're thinking. I'm really into wizardry these days. Well, you're right." Hector gave a rusty bark of laughter. He hadn't observed Dallas in this good a mood in a long time.
A low growl escaped Jaxon. "I meant I'd scoop out your liver with a spoon, you idiot!"
"Sterling silver or plastic?" Hector asked. In their line of work, details were important.
Besides, he liked being part of their banter. — Gena Showalter

Not doing any magic at all was the chief task of wizards - not :not doing magic" because they couldn't do magic, but not doing magic when they could do and didn't. Any ignorant fool can fail to turn someone else into a frog. You have to be clever to refrain from doing it when you knew how easy it was. There were places in the world commemorating those times when wizards hadn't been quite as clever as that, and on many of them the grass would never grow again. — Terry Pratchett

While a student in McCollum's class, Jobs became friends with a graduate who was the teacher's all-time favorite and a school legend for his wizardry in the class. Stephen Wozniak, whose younger brother had been on a swim team with Jobs, was almost five years older than Jobs and far more knowledgeable about electronics. But emotionally and socially he was still a high school geek. — Walter Isaacson

Kit," said a female voice, "what's wrong with the fridge? All the food's gone. No, wait, there's a really ugly alien in here disguised as a leaky lettuce. Hey, I guess I shouldn't be rude to it; it's a visitor. Welcome to our planet, Mr. Alien!"
This was followed by some muffled remark that Nita couldn't make out, possibly something Kit was saying. A moment later, Kit's sister Carmela's voice came out of Nita's refrigerator again. "Hola, Nita, are your phone bills getting too big? This is a weird way to deal with it ... — Diane Duane

It was a loss of identity. I was a wizard. It was more than just a job, more than just a title. Wizardry was at the core of my being. It was my relationship with my magic, the way I used it, the things it let me do that defined me, shaped me, gave me purpose. I — Jim Butcher

A magician must always value his magic effects more than himself, because after few years audience may not remember his name but they will remember his magic effect. — Amit Kalantri

They tell me we're living in an information age, but none of it seems to be the information I need or brings me closer to what I want to know. In fact (I'm becoming more and more convinced) all this electronic wizardry only adds to our confusion, delivering inside scoops and verdicts about events that have hardly begun: a torrent of chatter moving at the speed of light, making it nearly impossible for any of the important things to be heard — Matthew Flaming

Basically I just had to say, Screw everyone around me - from now on I'm just gonna play what I think is important to me and our music. So I gave the big finger to all the current trends in technical wizardry, and just went off and did what I felt was best for the songs. — Kirk Hammett

What are you thinking of? Dairine demanded. Let me help you
You need to stay here and let me do this, Roshaun said.
But if I can just
You can't, Roshaun said, looking at her with that infuriating, amused expression. But then that's what "Guarantor" means. If the world can't pay the price ... if the people around you can't pay the price ... you do.
The price? No! Dairine said. No! You don't even like my little planet - you said so
No, Roshaun said. Which is possibly the best of all possible reasons to do this.
He stepped out of the wizardry.
"No," Dairine whispered. "No! Roshaun!"
Roshaun vanished into the fire. — Diane Duane

Belief as such always has doubt at the bottom. It's knowing that makes wizardry work. Only knowing can banish doubt. — Diane Duane

It would actually constitute more than a miracle, he realised. It would take divine intervention plus luck, plus some unknown element of cosmic wizardry. — David Baldacci

Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts.
"Harry Potter must stay where he is safe. He is too great, too good, to lose. If Harry Potter goes back to Hogwarts, he will be in mortal danger."
"Why?" said Harry in surprise.
"There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year. — J.K. Rowling

The politics of wizardry were either very simple, and resolved by someone ceasing to breathe, or as complex as one ball of yarn in a room with three bright-eyed little kittens. — Terry Pratchett

In these days of instant gratification and electronic wizardry there are still some people, real people, who do not panic when their telephones fail because the batteries need re-charging. Instead they plug, not into an electronic device but into the earth, feel the wind in their hair, listen to the joyous, constant reaffirmation of running water and feel the good sun or refreshing rain on their skin. They, and only they, can be truly re-charged. — Anonymous

Wizardry is all about thinking ahead, about being prepared. Wizards aren't really superhuman. We just have a leg up on seeing things more clearly than other people, and being able to use the extra information we have for our benefit. Hell, the word wizard comes from the same root as wise. We know things. We aren't any stronger or faster than anyone else. We don't even have all that much more going in the mental department. But we're god-awful sneaky, and if we get the chance to get set for something, we can do some impressive things. — Jim Butcher

On this particular autumn night, only the prospect of another solitary evening lies before her. She will fry her chop and read herself to sleep, no doubt with a tale of wizardry and romance. Then, in dreams that strike even her as trite, Miss Dark will go adventuring in chain mail and silk. Tomorrow morning she will wake up alone, and do it all again. Poor Judy Dark! Poor little librarians of the world, those girls, secretly lovely, their looks marred forever by the cruelty of a pair of big black eyeglasses! — Michael Chabon

Any fool would not be brave
Who takes no heed of this verse
No heroic deed or action save
Any man from Finndragon's curse — Richie Earl

It was like ... like wizardry, but without the wizards and the mess. — Terry Pratchett

Stuart's a wizard with those kinds of things," she said.
"What kinds of things?"
"Oh, he can find anything online."
Debbie was obviously one of those parents who still hadn't quite grasped that using the Internet was not exactly wizardry, and that we could all find anything online. I didn't say this, because you don't want people to feel that they've missed something really obvious, even when they have. — Maureen Johnson

Your normal Wall Street big-swinging Richard has enough of a lingering moral compass to at least tell himself that his wizardry benefits somebody or something besides himself. You know, his cleverness makes capital markets more efficient. It provides credit to productive enterprise. Whatever. — Tina Brown

The autopilot is a hands-free piece of electronic wizardry. It's not some brutal application of electricity like one of the Pubyok's car batteries ... Think of its probing as a conversation with the mind, imagine it in a dance with identity. Yes, picture a pencil and eraser engaged in a beautiful dance across the page. The pencil's tip bursts with expression - squiggles, figures, words - filling the page, as the eraser measures, takes note, follows in the pencil's footsteps, leaving only blankness in its wake. The pencil's next seizure of scribbles is perhaps more intense and desperate, but shorter lived, and the eraser follows again. They continue in lockstep this way, the self and the state, coming closer to one another until finally the pencil and the eraser are almost one, moving in sympathy, the line disappearing even as it's laid down, the words unwritten before the letters are formed, and finally there is only white. — Adam Johnson

We have this extraordinary conceit in the West that while we've been hard at work in the creation of technological wizardry and innovation, somehow the other cultures of the world have been intellectually idle. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nor is this difference due to some sort of inherent Western superiority. We now know to be true biologically what we've always dreamed to be true philosophically, and that is that we are all brothers and sisters. We are all, by definition, cut from the same genetic cloth. That means every single human society and culture, by definition, shares the same raw mental activity, the same intellectual capacity. And whether that raw genius is placed in service of technological wizardry or unraveling the complex thread of memory inherent in a myth is simply a matter of choice and cultural orientation. — Wade Davis

His harmonic words could weave the fabric of time or spin matter from nothingness if the mood suited him. — Lita Burke

I live in gratitude to my parents for initiating me
and as early as I begged for it, without keeping me waiting
into knowledge of the word, into reading and spelling, by way of the alphabet. They taught it to me at home in time for me to begin to read before starting school.
My love for the alphabet, which endures, grew out of reciting it but, before that, out of seeing the letters on the page. In my own story books, before I could read them for myself I fell in love with various winding, enchanted-looking initials drawn by Walter Crane at the head of fairy tales. In "Once upon a time," an "o" had a rabbit running it as a treadmill, his feet upon flowers. When the day came years later for me to see the Book of Kells, all the wizardry of letter, initial, and word swept over me a thousand times, and the illumination, the gold, seemed a part of the world's beauty and holiness that had been there from the start. — Eudora Welty

We can land men on the moon, but, for all our mechanical and electronic wizardry, we cannot reproduce an artificial fore-finger that can feel as well as beckon. — John Napier

And the same things look bent and straight when seen in water and out of it, and also both concave and convex, due to the sight's being mislead by the colors, and every sort of confusion of this kind is plainly in our soul. And, then, it is because they take advantage of this affection in our nature that shadow painting, and puppeteering, and many other tricks of the kind fall nothing short of wizardry. — Socrates

He could be distracted, still, by beauty, by the wonder of a stroke of sunlight. Perhaps at such times he made himself open to wizardry-or conversely, was as warded and safe at such moments as Ynefel at its strongest. Perhaps threats simply slid past his attention and he made himself immune. — C.J. Cherryh

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards) Dear Mr. Potter, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. Yours sincerely, Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress — J.K. Rowling

Also, in the dismal Cold Waste, any man treasures illusions, though knowing them almost certainly to be such. — Fritz Leiber

There are eight levels of wizardry on the Disc; after sixteen years Rincewind has failed to achieve even level one. In fact it is considered opinion of some of his tutors that he is incapable even of achieving level zero, which most normal people are born at; to put it another way, it has been suggested that when Rincewind dies the average occult ability of the human race will actually go up by a fraction. — Terry Pratchett

What use is wizardry if it cannot save a Unicorn? — Peter S. Beagle

It's a fallacy, long rebuffed by science, that humans use only about 10% of their brainpower. But it is true about most summer movies. Pouring their wizardry into special effects and well-choreographed fights, warm-weather action films rarely challenge the viewer with grand notions or beautifully baffling imagery. — Richard Corliss

Witchcraft and wizardry had so effectively been denied that his own powers began to weaken, for there were few who contributed to his strength by invoking his name. — Orson Scott Card

The city had seemed like a great place to discover who you are. It just seemed that there was a lot to experience here, as if all you had to do was show up and the city would take care of the rest, making sure you got the education, the maturing, the wising-up you needed. Its crowds, the noise, the endlessness of it all, the perpetual motion, felt exciting then - revealing - just the deep end I needed to jump into. There is something unique about New York, some quality, some matchless, pertinent combination of promise and despair, wizardry and counterfeit, abundance and depletion, that stimulates and allows for a reckoning to occur - maybe even forces it. The city pulls back the curtain on who you are; it tests you and shows you what you are made of in a way that has become iconic in our popular culture, and with good reason. — Sari Botton

Right." Adrian took a deep breath and plunged on.
"I can't get into Mystwerk at thirteen, but Spiritas accepts
novices at eleven, just like Wien House."
"Spiritas?"
"That's the healers' academy at Oden's Ford. You
wouldn't remember it - it's just three years old. They're
combining green magic, music and art therapies, clan remedies,
and, eventually, wizardry."
"Eventually?" His father raised an eyebrow.
"That's the goal, but from what I hear, the deans at
Mystwerk haven't been eager to join in so far."
His father snorted. "Why am I not surprised? — Cinda Williams Chima

A great piece of music make people to close their eyes but a great magic effect make their eyes wide open. — Amit Kalantri

At that instant the hag's noisy breathing stopped and with it all other sound. Her eyes opened, showing only whites - milky ovals infinitely eerie in the dark root-tangle of her sharp features and stringy hair. The gray tip of her tongue traveled like a large maggot around her lips. — Fritz Leiber

When his hand came down across my bottom the first time I thought I was going to die. But the pain passed, transmuted as if my some alchemical wizardry, and for a moment I experienced a surreal satisfaction in being bent over in this way without rights or choices, past or future. In pain you are living in the present and as the pain passes there is pleasure from having endured the pain. — Chloe Thurlow

Could anyone among us have an inkling or a clue
What magic feats or wizardry and voodoo you can do?
And who would ever guess what powers you possess
And who would not be stunned to see you prove
There's more to us than surgeons can remove
So much more than we ever knew
So much more were we born to do
Should you draw back the curtain, this I am certain
You'll be impressed with you — Alan Jay Lerner

As Rockwell Kent said in his Alaskan journal, 'The wonder of wilderness was its tranquility.' I wish I had said that first. It grasps the salient point: not just tranquility, but wonder at tranquility. Wilderness is a surprise. We were raised on nature films that converted nature into thrilling entertainment; we still expect to find predators lurking everywhere in the wildness, and danger and excitement. But instead we find tranquility. And wonder at it.

Interesting word, "wonder." From Old English wundrain: 'to be affected with astonishment.' Its antonyms name the most pervasive symptoms of modern life: indifference, boredom, ennui. The dictionary strains to explain wonder, mentioning awe, astonishment, marvel, miracle, wizardry, bewilderment (note the 'wild' in 'bewilderment'). Finally it offers this: 'Far superior to anything formerly recognized or foreseen.'

Indeed. — Jack Turner

It is human nature to want to believe in the wizardry of the magician - but also to turn against him and to scorn him the moment that he commits the slightest error that reveals his trickery. Those in the audience are embarrassed to have been so easily astonished, and they blame the performer for their gullibility. — Dean Koontz

And in that very moment, away behind in some far corner of the city, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed reckoning nothing of wizardry or war, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn. — J.R.R. Tolkien

The purpose of a business is to get and keep a customer. Without customers, no amount of engineering wizardry, clever financing, or operations expertise can keep a company going. — Theodore Levitt

If we accept that we are all cut from the same genetic cloth, all cultures share the same genius. And whether that genius is placed into technological wizardry which has been our great achievement, or, by contrast, placed into the unraveling of complex threads of memory inherent in a myth is simply a matter of choice. — Wade Davis

It is no secret. All power is one in source and end, I think. Years and distances, stars and candles, water and wind and wizardry, the craft in a man's hand and the wisdom in a tree's root: they all arise together. My name, and yours, and the true name of the sun, or a spring of water, or an unborn child, all are syllables of the great word that is very slowly spoken by the shining of the stars. There is no other power. No other name. — Ursula K. Le Guin

Wizardry aside, it's tough to beat a gun for discouraging men with baseball bats. — Jim Butcher

I always considered programming as being like modern-day wizardry. You could think of things in your mind and then make them happen. — Jeff Minter

No man, no power, can bind the action of wizardry or still the words of power. For they are the very words of Making, and one who could silence them could unmake the world. — Ursula K. Le Guin

Magic is the stunning art of surprising your audience, so that nothing else surprises them. — Amit Kalantri

This diary holds memories of terrible things. Things that were covered up. Things that happened at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry — J.K. Rowling

A magician reveals himself not only by the magic he presents but also by the respect and entertainment he gives to his audience. — Amit Kalantri

Magicians made magic but critics made it tricks. — Amit Kalantri

When sunset, like a crimson throat to hell, is cavernous ...
("A Wine of Wizardry") — George Sterling

Sometimes it's not always about what you can see or hear but what's under the hood of a game that's most impressive. Between those thousands and thousands of lines of code, magic happens. Sometimes the most amazing feats of gaming wizardry happen without you even noticing. — Rob Manuel

If J. K. Rowling had written Harry Potter in Google Docs instead of Microsoft Word, she would have granted Google the worldwide rights to her work, the right to adapt or dramatize all the Muggles as Google saw fit, to say nothing of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Google would have retained the rights to sell her stories to Hollywood studios and to have them performed on stages around the world, as well as own all the translation rights. Had Rowling written her epic novel in Google Docs, she would have granted Google the rights to her $15 billion Harry Potter empire - all because the ToS say so. — Marc Goodman

The world loves a clone and a good knock-off. It cheats the artist ... In the obsession for technical wizardry, people disappear; and if your voice isn't present in a relationship, you don't matter. — Alonzo King

The countryside in Belfast is beautiful. No technical wizardry is needed to show quite how glorious it is in its natural state. — Gwendoline Christie

Manipulation, fueled with good intent, can be a blessing. But when used wickedly, it is the beginning of a magician's karmic calamity. — T.F. Hodge

And no wonder we couldn't find Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry," said Ron. "He's not exactly recent if he's six hundred and sixty-five, is he? — J.K. Rowling

You have to sometimes just run with the problem rather than trying to solve it with hi-tech wizardry and lots of planning. — Benedict Cumberbatch

My real wizardry has nothing to do with spells at all. It has to do with knowledge. — Danielle Paige