The Vanishing Witch Quotes

“Pay heed, my darlings, and always take the greatest care over the company you keep in life: if death strikes you without warning, you may be stuck with them til the moon turns to blood and wouldn't that be a torment?”
― Karen Maitland, The Vanishing Witch

“But, then again, the actions of the most insignificant men or women can be as a single raindrop that rolls a pebble that dislodges a clod that tumbles a rock and, before you know it, the whole mountainside has crashed down, sweeping palaces and pigsties, princes and paupers into the sea. So maybe there are demons at work, even in the smallest mischief”
― Karen Maitland, The Vanishing Witch

“A witch cannot die until her familiars or imps are dead. If a witch desires to put an end to her suffering she must call each familiar by name and order it to die. Then, when the last is dead, she too will die. Greetwell Edward”
― Karen Maitland, The Vanishing Witch

“The hand of a man hanged on the gallows has healing powers. If it be stroked across a sore, tumour or goitre, the evil shall pass to the dead man and the sick will be cured. If a woman be barren she should go to a gibbet at night, climb up and reach through the bars and draw the corpse’s hand across her womb three or seven times and her curse will leave her. Lincoln”
― Karen Maitland, The Vanishing Witch

“A witch may take the form of a magpie, for it would not enter the Ark with Noah, but remained outside to cackle in glee at the drowning world. Smithfield,”
― Karen Maitland, The Vanishing Witch

“Witches have the power to raise storms by whistling or shaking out their hair. Others do it by christening a dead cat, then tying parts of a human corpse to it before flinging it into the sea. Lincoln”
― Karen Maitland, The Vanishing Witch

“If anyone fears theft, let him scatter caraway seeds among those things of value and if a thief should try to steal them he shall be held in that place. Likewise, if a woman fears her husband may stray she should sew caraway seeds into his clothes, so that no other woman may steal him away from her. Mistress”
― Karen Maitland, The Vanishing Witch

“The monk, Gregory the Great, tells how a nun, in her greed, ate a lettuce without first making the sign of the cross to protect herself against the evil spirits that hide between its leaves, and so she became possessed by a demon. Greetwell”
― Karen Maitland, The Vanishing Witch

“A child’s fingernails should never be cut in the first year. The mother must bite them off or he’ll become a thief. But when they are first cut at a year old, they must be buried under an ash tree so that witches can’t take them and cause the child harm. Lincoln”
― Karen Maitland, The Vanishing Witch

“Besides, I'm not sure they let ferrets into Heaven and I'd miss old Mavet.”
― Karen Maitland, The Vanishing Witch

“He was a good-looking man, but then rogues usually are”
― Karen Maitland, The Vanishing Witch