Thirteenth Child Quotes
"A lot of seventh sons go for magicians, because if there’s one sort of work where luck is more useful than any other, it’s making magic."
"The seventh son of a seventh son is a natural-born magician."
"I’m Eff—the seventh daughter. Lan’s twin… and a thirteenth child."
"If I spilled my soup, it was done apurpose and with evil in mind."
"When Lan and I were almost five... he whispered a promise to come every night and teach me what he’d learned."
"You’re a natural—you mean you’re a seventh son?"
"I can see plain enough that an angel straight from heaven itself would grow up crooked if she was watched and chivvied and told every morning and every night that she was sure to turn evil."
"If you limit yourselves to one way of seeing, one truth, you will limit your power."
"It was suicide to go west of the Mammoth River, or north of its headwaters, without a magician to keep you safe; everybody knew that."
"I knew that what he really wanted was to make sure Lan got his magic lessons without me anywhere near, in case I might drag him down when I eventually went bad."
"Even when it’s a pretty strong possibility, and something that’s a whole lot better."
"Lan’s a natural magician. I’ve been thinking that something would break loose soon, but I hadn’t expected anything quite so dramatic. Nor so dangerous."
"Magic was a snare and a crutch, and men would only realize their full potential if they stopped using it and depended on their brains and strong arms instead."
"What business would the Society of Progressive Rationalists have with a practicing magician and a professor of magic?"
"It’s only the use of magic that’s forbidden, after all, not the study of it."
"Your nephew hasn’t had the training to cast the sort of advanced spells we’ll be working on, even if he wanted to."
"You might die, or the fever could weaken your heart, despite all our spells and potions."
"Nobody has ever yet said just who Brant might be a danger to."
"I can see this year is going to be an education in more ways than one."
"They show that we belong to the Society of Progressive Rationalists."
"Our ideas and imaginations can soar, if we don’t cripple them by looking to spells to do everything for us."
"It’s a reasonable question, Eff. We’re taught that no reasonable question should be considered impolite."
"You might have a lot of abilities, but nobody can be good at everything."
"You’re my twin. I’m going to make sure you’re all right."
"We’ll have to haul in a few things, at first, but the planning committee has prepared very carefully."
"If I’d known that, I’d have played sick and stayed home."
"Eff! Mind your manners! Being sick is no excuse for rudeness."
"Humility is as good for the soul as it is for the memory."
"I bet it’ll stink up the whole college. Maybe even half the city."
"But it is for Mama and Papa, and all the older ones who stayed, and even Rennie and Hugh."
"I was really sorry. Once you get over the novelty of the thing, it’s almighty boring, lying in bed all day for months."
"Rennie! How can you say that? He’s a hero—everybody says so!"
"It’s not fair that you were born last and a double-seven, and the rest of us are just regular people."
"I want to be me. And then I want to do something large."
"The mammoth couldn’t move forward, but it was still plenty mad."
"My father wants me to be like him, only better."
"I hadn’t thought that because we’d been in different grades for so long, I’d hardly notice he was gone."
"You don’t have to say anything. You’re bad luck, wherever you are."
"I didn’t think I could control the kind of anger I’d felt toward Uncle Earn."
"I knew that the power I’d felt was just a beginning."
"There’s nobody who doesn’t ever get in trouble."
"It worked just the way he said—it made people notice me without knowing why they were noticing me."
"That whole year was the happiest I could ever remember being."
"You," he said sternly, "are a blithering idiot."
"Enough for what?" I asked, but he just shook his head.
"The best of it, for me, was that it all felt so normal and ordinary."
"Well, at least it will be one in the eye for the chairman."
"I wonder if something that old settlement magician did is what’s keeping the grubs away from Oak River?"
"Why do you always blame yourself for everything that goes wrong?"
"But it’s the little things that are the worst."
"Yes. And it’s not just to make things a little easier."
"I don’t expect you to understand, because you’ve never had to go without spell casting."
"Fear’s a powerful thing. Habit is even worse, for most folks."
"Nobody really knows yet. We’re still inventing ourselves."
"I can’t see you laying hands on me to stop me."