“When you are writing laws you are testing words to find their utmost power. Like spells, they have to make things happen in the real world, and like spells, they only work if people believe in them.”
Source: Wolf Hall
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Hilary Mantel 21
British writer 1952Related quotes
“The only stupid thing about words is the spelling of them.”
Foreword to Wikis for Dummies
“And, like some low and mournful spell,
To whisper but one word—farewell!”
A Thought on Parting.
Context: But then to part! to part when Time
Has wreathed his tireless wing with flowers,
And spread the richness of a clime
Of fairy o'er this land of ours;
When glistening leaves and shaded streams
In the soft light of Autumn lay,
And, like the music of our dreams,
The viewless breezes seemed to stray—
'T was bitter then to rend the heart
With the sad thought that we must part;
And, like some low and mournful spell,
To whisper but one word—farewell!
Source: The Tale of Despereaux
Source: Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), Chapter Four.
As quoted in LIFE magazine (July 1966), also in Ray Charles : Man and Music (1998) by Michael Lydon, p. 264
As quoted in Pearls of Wisdom (198 http://interview.sweetsearch.com/2010/11/ray-charles.html
Variant: What is soul? It's like electricity — we don't really know what it is, but it's a force that can light a room.
Source: The House at Pooh Corner (1928), Chapter Five - Rabbit, speaking of Christopher Robin.