Matthew

“Again Pope Clement [VI] attempted to check the hysteria in a [Papal] Bull of September 1348 in which he said that Christians who imputed the pestilence to the Jews had been “seduced by that liar, the Devil,” and that the charge of well-poisoning and ensuing massacres were a “horrible thing.” He pointed out that “by a mysterious decree of God” the plague was afflicting all peoples, including Jews; that it raged in places where no Jews lived, and that elsewhere they were victims like everyone else; therefore the charge that they caused it was “without plausibility.” He urged the clergy to take Jews under their protection as he himself offered to do in Avignon, but his voice was hardly heard against local animus.”
― Barbara W. Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

“May the sun shine on you all day long, everything go right and nothing wrong. May those you love bring love back to you, and may all the wishes you wish come true.”
― Rebecca Rosenberg, Madame Pommery, Creator of Brut Champagne

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

“This is, in part, why there is less magic in the world today. Magic is secret and secrets are magic, after all, and years upon years of teaching and sharing magic and worse. Writing it down in fancy books that get all dusty with age has lessened it, removed its power bit by bit.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus