“Ah, Mastery of the Five Elements!""Is that the one we want?" I asked."No, but a good one. How to tame the five essential elements of the universe - earth, air, water, fire, and cheese!""Cheese?”

“Why not other elements besides fire, air, earth and water? There are four of them, just four, those foster parents of beings! What a pity! Why aren't there forty elements instead, or four hundred, or four thousand? How paltry everything is, how miserly, how wretched! Stingily given, aridly invented, heavily made!Why not other elements besides fire, air, earth and water? There are four of them, just four, those foster parents of beings! What a pity! Why aren't there forty elements instead, or four hundred, or four thousand? How paltry everything is, how miserly, how wretched! Stingily given, aridly invented, heavily made!”

“Can one drown in one's element... If fish can drown in water, can human beings suffocate in air?”

“Yeah, well, food's one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfigurations," said Ron, to general astonishment.”

“The world to-day is sick to its thin blood for lack of elemental things, for fire before the hands, for water welling from the earth, for air, for the dear earth itself underfoot. In my world of beach and dunes these elemental presences lived and had their being, and under their arch there moved an incomparable pageant of nature and the year.”

“One of Beethoven's favorite dishes was macaroni and cheese. The girl I marry must be able to make good macaroni and cheese...""How did Beethoven feel about cold cereal?”