Quotes from Practical Magic

“Sometimes the right thing feels all wrong until it is over and done with.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“It doesn't matter what people tell you. It doesn't matter what they might say. Sometimes you have to leave home. Sometimes, running away means you're headed in the exact right direction.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Aunt Frances”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“The moon is always jealous of the heat of the day, just as the sun always longs for something dark and deep.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“Trouble is just like love, after all; it comes in unannounced and takes over before you've had a chance to reconsider, or even to think.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“Pride is a funny thing; it can make what is truly worthless appear to be a treasure.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“Do you ever just put your arms out and just spin and spin and spin? Well, that's what love is like; everything inside of you tells you to stop before you fall, but for some reason you just keep going.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“Unrequited love is so boring. Weeping under a blue-black sky is for suckers or maniacs.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“Every problem has a solution, although it may not be the outcome that was originally hoped for or expected.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“I dream of a love that even time will lie down and be still for.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“Some things, when they change, never do return to the way they once were. Butterflies for instance, and women who've been in love with the wrong man too often.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“The moon is always jealous of the heat of the day, just as the sun always longs for something dark and deep.

They could see how love might control you, from your head to your toes, not to mention every single part of you in between.

A woman could want a man so much she might vomit in the kitchen sink or cry so fiercly blood would form in the corners of her eyes.

She put her hand to her throat as though someone were strangling her, but really she was choking on all that love she thought she’d needed so badly.

What had she thought, that love was a toy, something easy and sweet, just to play with? Real love was dangerous, it got you from inside and held on tight, and if you didn’t let go fast enough you might be willing to do anything for it’s sake.

She refused to believe in superstition, she wouldn’t; yet it was claiming her.

Some fates are guaranteed, no matter who tries to intervene.

After all I’ve done for you is lodged somewhere in her brain, and far worse, it’s in her heart as well.

She was bad luck, ill-fated and unfortunate as the plague.

She is not worth his devotion. She wishes he would evaporate into thin air. Maybe then she wouldn’t have this feeling deep inside, a feeling she can deny all she wants, but that won’t stop it from being desire.

Love is worth the sum of itself and nothing more.

But that’s what happens when you’re a liar, especially when you’re telling the worst of these lies to yourself.

He has stumbled into love, and now he’s stuck there. He’s fairly used to not getting what he wants, and he’s dealt with it, yet he can’t help but wonder if that’s only because he didn’t want anything so badly.

It’s music, it’s a sound that is absurdly beautiful in his mouth, but she won’t pay attention. She knows from the time she spent on the back stairs of the aunts’ house that most things men say are lies. Don’t listen, she tells herself. None if it’s true and none of it matters, because he’s whispering that he’s been looking for her forever. She can’t believe it. She can’t listen to anything he tells her and she certainly can’t think, because if she did she might just think she’d better stop.

What good would it do her to get involved with someone like him? She’d have to feel so much, and she’s not that kind.

The greatest portion of grief is the one you dish out for yourself.

She preferred cats to human beings and turned down every offer from the men who fell in love with her.

They told her how sticks and stones could break bones, but taunting and name-calling were only for fools.

— & now here she is, all used up.

Although she’d never believe it, those lines in *’s face are the most beautiful part about her. They reveal what she’s gone through and what she’s survived and who exactly she is, deep inside.

She’s gotten back some of what she’s lost. Attraction, she now understands, is a state of mind.

If there’s one thing * is now certain of, it’s house you can amaze yourself by the things you’re willing to do.

You really don’t know? That heart-attack thing you’ve been having? It’s love, that’s what it feels like.

She knows now that when you don’t lose yourself in the bargain, you find you have double the love you started with, and that’s one recipe that can’t be tampered with.

Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“Avoid men who call you Baby, and women who have no friends, and dogs that scratch at their bellies and refuse to lie down at your feet. Wear dark glasses; bathe with lavender oil and cool fresh water. Seek shelter from the sun at noon.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“No one knows you like a person with whom you've shared a childhood. No one will ever understand you in quite the same way.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“Young Sally Owens: He will hear my call a mile away. He will whistle my favorite song. He can ride a pony backwards.

Young Gillian Owens: What are you doing?

Young Sally Owens: Summoning up a true love spell called Amas Veritas. He can flip pancakes in the air. He'll be marvelously kind. And his favorite shape will be a star. And he'll have one green eye and one blue.

Young Gillian Owens: Thought you never wanted to fall in love.

Young Sally Owens: That's the point. The guy I dreamed of doesn't exist. And if he doesn't exist I'll never die of a broken heart.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“Holding a tear back makes them drain upward, higher and higher, until one day your head just explodes and you're left with a stub of a neck and nothing more.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“Love is worth the sum of itself, and nothing more.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“You can never tell about a person by guessing...that's why language was invented. Otherwise, we'd all be like dogs, sniffing each other to find out where we stood.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“Some fates are guaranteed, no matter who tries to intervene.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“Always keep mint on your windowsill in August, to ensure that buzzing flies will stay outside, where they belong. Don't think the summer is over, even when roses droop and turn brown and the stars shift position in the sky. Never presume August is a safe or reliable time of the year.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“People want to ignore what they can't understand. They're looking for logic at any cost.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“It had made her too helpless, because that's what love did. There was no way around it and no way to fight it. Now if she lost, she lost everything.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“He knew exactly how to hit a woman, so that the marks hardly showed. He knew how to kiss her , too, so that her heart began to race and she'd start to think forgiveness with every breath. It's amazing the places that love will carry you. It's astounding to discover just how far you're willing to go.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“All this kissing was making her crazy; it was reminding her of what she could feel, and how it could be when you wanted someone as much as he wanted you.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“I never even believed in happiness. I didn't think it existed. Now look at me. I'm ready to believe in just about anything.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“Sometimes, running away means you're headed in the exact right direction.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“You watch teenage girls and feel shivers up and down your arms -- those poor creatures don't know the first thing about time or agony or the price they're going to have to pay for just about everything.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“As they were falling asleep, Gillian could have sworn she heard Ben say Fate--as if they were meant to be together from the start and every single thing they'd ever done in their lives had been leading to this moment. If you thought that way, you could fall asleep without regret. You could put your whole life in place, with all the sadness and the sorrow, and still feel that at last you had everything you ever wanted. In spite of the lousy odds and all the wrong turns, you might actually discover that you were the one who'd won.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

“Helplessness and anger make for predictable behavior: Children are certain to shove each other and pull hair, teenagers will call each other names and cry, and grown women who are sisters will say words so cruel that each syllable will take on the form of a snake, although such a snake often circles in on itself to eat its own tail once the words are said aloud.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Practical Magic

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“The interesting thing about the New Albion was that it was so
completely modern in spirit. There was hardly a soul in the firm
who was not perfectly well aware that publicity - advertising - is
the dirtiest ramp that capitalism has yet produced. In the red
lead firm there had still lingered certain notions of commercial
honour and usefulness. But such things would have been laughed at
in the New Albion. Most of the employees were the hard-boiled,
Americanized, go-getting type to whom nothing in the world is
sacred, except money. They had their cynical code worked out. The
public are swine; advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a
swill-bucket. And yet beneath their cynicism there was the final
naivete, the blind worship of the money-god.”
― George Orwell, quote from Keep the Aspidistra Flying

“Don’t be mad” was the first thing he said. He really was terrified, as if the most frightening reaper on the planet was no scarier than a mouse, and yet put him in a tux and it was the Apocalypse.”
― Courtney Allison Moulton, quote from Wings of the Wicked

“Please don't look for me. You won't find me.”
― Jalpa Williby, quote from Chaysing Dreams

“With the thinnest possible layer of glass, we find that the number of photons arriving at A is nearly always zero-sometimes it's like 1. When we replace the thinnest layer with a slightly thicker one, we find that the amount of light reflected is higher-closer to the expected 8%. After a few more replacements the count of photons arriving at A increases past the 8% mark. As we continue to substitute still "thicker " layers of glass-we're up to about 5 millionths of an inch now-the amount of light reflected by the two surfaces reaches a maximum of 16%, and then goes down, through 8%, back to zero-if the layer of glass is just the right thickness, there is no reflection at all. (Do that with spots!)

With gradually thicker and thicker layers of glass, partial reflection again increases to 16% and returns to zero-a cycle that repeats itself again and again(see Fig. 5). Newton discovered these oscillations and did one experiment that could be correctly interpreted only if the oscillations continued for 34,000 cycles! Today, with lasers (which produce a very pure, monochromatic light), we can see this cycle still going strong after more than 100,000,000 repetitions-which corresponds to glass that is more than 50 meters thick. (We don't see this phenomenon every day because the light source is normally not monochromatic.)

So it turns out that our prediction of 8% is right as an overall average (since the actual amount varies in a regular pattern from zero to 16%), but it's exactly right only twice each cycle-like a stopped clock (which is right twice a day).”
― Richard Feynman, quote from QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter

“To use the past to justify the present is bad enough—but it’s just as bad to use the present to justify the past.”
― Amitav Ghosh, quote from The Glass Palace

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