The Alchemyst

OK," Josh said evenly, "I've seen men made of mud, I guess I can accept spying rats. Do they talk?" he wondered aloud. Don't be ridiculous," Flamel snapped, "They're rats." Josh really didn't think it was a ridiculous suggestion.

You must learn to heed your senses. Humans use but a tiny percentage of theirs. They barely look, they rarely listen, they never smell, and they think that they can only experience feelings through their skin. But they talk, oh, do they talk.

At the heart of every legend there is a grain of truth.

Every story starts with an idea, but it is the characters that move this idea forward.

But what science cannot understand, it dismisses.

Great change always comes down to the actions of a single person.

Magic is really only the utilization of the entire spectrum of the senses. Humans have cut themselves off from their senses. Now they see only a tiny portion of the visible spectrum, hear only the loudest of sounds, their sense of smell is shockingly poor and they can only distinguish the sweetest and sourest of tastes.

To remain unknown in this modern world: that, indeed, is real power.

Once you have been touched by magic, you are forever changed. You leave a trail.

Love is the water of life, drink deeply.

Wait. Look. Notice. If you keep those three words in mind, you just might survive the next few days.

We had little or no emotion. We lacked the capacity to feel fear, to experience love, to enjoy the sensations of happiness and delight.The finest warriors are not only those who do not fear, but those who are without anger.

The two that are one, the one that is all!

And once begun, change cannot be reversed.

When you've lived as long as I have, nothing much surprises you.

What you call magic is nothing more than an act of the imagination fired by the senses, then given shape by the power of your aura.

He is many things - dangerous and devious, cunning and deadly, a good friend and an implacable enemy - but he comes from an age when a man's word was indeed precious.

The fifth force was the magic of Time, the greatest of all the magics.

The Elders had nothing but contempt for human emotion; they considered it their biggest weakness. Perenelle knew it was humankind's greatest strength.

I'm not a magician. I'am an alchemyst, a man of science, though perhaps not the science you would be familiar with.

The SUV was the only car moving. Josh had his foot pressed flat to the floor, and the needle on the speedometer hovered close to eighty. He was becoming more comfortable with the controls—he hadn't hit anything for at least a minute.

You're saying we lost the powers of magic because we grew lazy.

Nicholas: One of the oldest secrets of alchemy is that every living thing, from the most complex creatures right down to the simplest leaf, carries the seeds of its creation within itself. Josh: DNA.

But magic, like everything else, follows certain natural laws. Magic needs energy wherever it can find it. If no other source of energy is available, it will take the life force of the magician who created it. That is why every use of magic weakens the magician.

Dee's search for knowledge was always his greatest strength... and his weakness.

But magic is really only the utilization of the entire spectrum of the senses.

A boy and a girl, dressed in the T-shirts and denim that are the shabby uniform of this age.