“You can tell the size of a person by the way he treats people who cannot help him.”

“The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good, and how he treats people who can't fight back.”

“arouse in the other person an eager want. He who can do this has the whole world with him. He who cannot walks a lonely way.”

“1 person will tell you that you can do it, 100 people will tell you that you can't, and 20 people will tell you that you can do it only with their help. One person is right.”

“Haven’t I?” Magnus said, and then smiled at him. “Will, you treat me as a human being, a person like yourself; rare is the Shadowhunter who treats a warlock like that. I am not so heartless that I would call in a favor from a brokenhearted boy. One who I think, by the way, will be a very good man someday. So I will tell you this. I will stay here when you go, and I will watch over your Jem for you, and if he wakes, I will tell him where you went, and that it was for him. And I will do what I can to preserve his life: I do not have yin fen, but I do have magic, and perhaps there is something in an old spell book I might find that can help him.”

“You can always tell how a man will treat his wife by the way he treats his mother.”