“My boy, you shall be everything in the world, animal, vegetable, mineral, protista, or virus, for all I care-before I have done with you-but you will have to trust my superior backsight. The time is not yet ripe for you to be a hawk... so you may as well sit down for the moment and learn to be a human being.”

“If I were to be made a knight," said the Wart, staring dreamily into the fire, "I should insist on doing my vigil by myself, as Hob does with his hawks, and I should pray to God to let me encounter all the evil in the world in my own person, so that if I conquered there would be none left, and, if I were defeated, I would be the one to suffer for it.""That would be extremely presumptuous of you," said Merlyn, "and you would be conquered, and you would suffer for it.""I shouldn't mind.""Wouldn't you? Wait till it happens and see.""Why do people not think, when they are grown up, as I do when I am young?""Oh dear," said Merlyn. '"You are making me feel confused. Suppose you wait till you are grown up and know the reason?""I don't think that is an answer at all," replied the Wart, justly.Merlyn wrung his hands."Well, anyway," he said, "suppose they did not let you stand against all the evil in the world?""I could ask," said the Wart."You could ask," repeated Merlyn.He thrust the end of his beard into his mouth, stared tragically into the fire, and began to munch it fiercely.”

“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”

“You run a grave risk, my boy," said the magician, "of being turned into a piece of bread, and toasted.”

“I can see that you spoke in ignorance, and I bitterly regret that I should have been so petty as to take offence where none was intended.”

“It was well for him, with his chivalry and mysticism, to make the grand renunciation. But it takes two to make love, or to make a quarrel. She was not an insensate piece of property to be taken up or laid down at his convenience. You could not give up a human heart as you could give up drinking. The drink was yours, and you could give it up: but your lover's soul was not you own: it was not at your disposal; you had a duty towards it.”

“Jenny, all my life I have wanted to do miracles. I have wanted to be holy. I suppose it was ambition or pride or some other unworthy thing. It was not enough for me to conquer the world--I wanted to conquer heaven too.”