Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy, #2)

by Deborah Harkness

‘Change is the only reliable thing in the world.’” “Heraclitus,” I murmured.

“We women own nothing absolutely, save what lies between our ears. Our virtue belongs first to our father and then to our husband. We dedicate our duty to our family. As soon as we share our thoughts with another, put pen to paper or thread a needle, all that we do and make belongs to someone else. So long as she has words and ideas, Annie will always possess something that is hers alone.”

And so I discovered that the practice of magic was not unlike the practice of history. The trick to both wasn’t finding the correct answers but formulating better questions.

Galatino’s De Arcanis Catholicae Veritatis.

bêtes noires.

“You tell me that magic is just desire made real. Maybe spells are nothing more than words that you believe with all your heart,”

The goddess does

not want us to imitate some ideal of perfection, but to be our true selves.”