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• A wizard is only as good as his spells," people will often say.
  It is telling however, that this statement is only made by people who have never been wizards themselves....
• Magicians must exercise caution in all things. Each of you has heard the story of the mage who perfected the gold producing spell, only to be crushed by his newfound wealth.
  Less well known is the story of the sorcerer who turned everyone he didn't like into a toad, until the day he exercised the spell on an entire unfriendly village and was found the next morning hopped to death....
• Wizards are constantly subject to negative publicity.
  A case in point. One elderly wizard of my acquaintance, whenever he was bothered by unexpected guests, would immediately cast one of three spells upon them, either turning them to stone, transforming them into segmented worms, or blasting them entirely out of the kingdom....
• Magic weapons can, on occasion, be of great use, yet one more part of the truly rounded wizard's arsenal of tricks, spells, and remarks for all occasions.
  However, the thoroughly prepared mage will find certain spells of even more importance than these, especially those enchantments which produce magic wings, magic carpets, and magic running boots, for those times when the rest of you arsenal fails you completely....
• Wizards, like all mortals, need their rest. Casting spells, righting wrongs, and putting a little away for your old age can all be draining occupations.
  The true wizard must therefore always insist on a good night's sleep, and a few days' respite between tasks....
• In magic, as in all true professions, there are rules by which you must play.
  At least, you must play by them until such time as you can get away with something else....
• Beginnings and endings are, for the most part, artificial constructs.
  You say you begin when you are born, but what of those months spent growing in the womb?...
• The beach was a beach we shall not name, because his private house was there
  but it was a small sandy stretch somewhere along the hundreds of miles of coastline that runs west from Los Angeles, which is described in the new edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in one entry as "junky, wunky, lunky, stunky, and what's that other word, and all kinds of bad stuff, woo," and in another, written only hours later as "being like several thousand square miles of American Express junk mail, but without the same sense of moral depth....
• When traveling, the sages say, one must always be prepared to accept local customs.
  Yet there are areas of this very kingdom where one might find it customary to tax a wizard into poverty...