The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30; Tiffany Aching, #1)

by Terry Pratchett

That was how it worked. No magic at all. But that time it had been magic. And it didn’t stop being magic just because you found out how it was done. . .

shepherd’s crook, which was a lot

“Them as can do has to do for them as can’t. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.”

You could spend a day looking at a flower to see how wonderful it is, and that wouldn’t get the milking done.

No wonder we dream our way through our lives. To be awake, and see it all as it really is . . . no one could stand that for long.

“The thing about witchcraft,” said Mistress Weatherwax, “is that it’s not like school at all. First you get the test, and then afterward you spend years findin’ out how you passed it. It’s a bit like life in that respect.”

“You mean it just exists in my head?” said Tiffany. “You’ve got lots of things in your head. That doesn’t mean they aren’t real.

Granny Aching would have said nothing. Granny Aching often said nothing. She just smiled to herself, and puffed on her pipe, and waited until the right time.

It’s still magic even if you know how it’s done,

Ordinary fortune-tellers tell you what you want to happen; witches tell you what’s going to happen whether you want it to or not. Strangely enough, witches tend to be more accurate but less popular.