He felt as if he had been shipwrecked on the Titanic, but in the nick of time had been rescued. By the Lusitania

Unseen University had never admitted women, muttering something about problems with the plumbing, but the real reason was an unspoken dread that if women were allowed to mess around with magic they would probably be embarrassingly good at it.

If you have let pride get the better of you, then you have already lost, but if you grab pride by the scruff of the neck and ride it like a stallion, then you may have already won.

There are no medium-sized trees in the deep forest. There are only the towering ones, whose canopy spreads across the sky. Below, in the gloom, there's light for nothing but mosses and ferns. But when a giant falls, leaving a little space ... then there's a race - between the trees on either side, who want to spread out, and the seedlings below, who race to grow up. Sometimes, you can make your own space.

Everywhere's been where it is ever since it was first put there. It's called geography.

The harder I work, the luckier I become.

The English were notoriously unenthusiastic about burning witches. I suppose ours were too soggy.