“Love and magic are like oil and water--they just don't mix.”

“Books" - Snell smiled - "are a kind of magic.”

“Don't ever call me mad, Mycroft. I'm not mad. I'm just ... well, differently moraled, that's all.”

“Ordinary adults don't like children to speak of things that are denied them by their own gray minds.”

“Scientific thought - indeed, any mode of thought, whether it be religious or philosophical or anything else - is just like the fashions that we wear - only much longer lived. It's a little like a boy band.”

“What's with the "iMagic" name change?' I said without preamble.'Industrial Magic was a bit of a mouthful,' he explained. 'Besides, putting an "i"in front of anything makes it more hip and current.”

“Maybe those sorts of yes-or-no life-and-death decisions are easier to make because they are so black and white. I can cope with them because it's easier. Human emotions, well. . .they're just a fathomless collection of grays and I don't do so well on the midtones.”