Kirk Fallin

“In 1654, for example, Elizabeth Drew was whipped twelve stripes (a punishment comparable to that for rape of a single woman) for naming her master’s son as the father of her child. When Drew persisted in her story she was whipped an additional twenty stripes and forced to stand in public on lecture day with a paper on her forehead proclaiming herself “A SLANDERER OF MR ZEROBABELL ENDICOTT.”
― Carol F. Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England

“Witchcraft is similar to the risk of nuclear war, of global warming, or, perhaps most aptly, of contemporary terrorism: they all constitute an overriding but indeterminable threat, a threat that is both real and yet often absents itself from daily experience.”
― Nils Bubandt, The Empty Seashell: Witchcraft and Doubt on an Indonesian Island

“Well, after that she would do her best. That was the only way. You did not want things for yourself. That made you small. That kept you safe. That meant you could move smoothly through the world without upsetting every applecart you came across. And if you were careful, if you were a proper part of things, then you could help. You mended what was cracked. You tended to the things you found askew. And you trusted that the world in turn would brush you up against the chance to eat. It was the only graceful way to move. All else was vanity and pride.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Slow Regard of Silent Things

“Half of seeming clever is keeping your mouth shut at the right times.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear