Witch Quotes: 10 Verified Classics and 60 Original Witchy Lines

Witch Quotes: 10 Verified Classics and 60 Original Witchy Lines

The best witch quotes are public-domain lines quoted exactly, from Shakespeare, Baum, Hawthorne and the Grimms, or original lines you can post without crediting a film studio. Here are 10 classics checked word for word against Project Gutenberg, 60 originals sorted by tone, a fit table and a sourced history from Salem to Halloween. Keep them short: on SubhSandesh, 48.3% of shared pages are opened on a phone and each page averages 11.1 views, so a line is read on a small screen, often twice.

Where do the famous witch quotes actually come from?

A witch quote is a short line about witches, from a named work or written fresh, that people repeat for its mood: power, mischief, cosiness or dread. Most shared "classics" trace to four public-domain works: Macbeth (c. 1606), the Grimms' "Hansel and Gretel" (1812), Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" (1835) and Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900).

Many others are film lines still under copyright. "I'll get you, my pretty" appears 0 times in the Gutenberg text of Baum's novel; credit the 1939 film or leave it out.

10 public-domain witch quotes, checked word for word

Each line matches the Gutenberg edition named, punctuation included. Shakespeare editions spell "cauldron" differently, so match the one you credit.

1. "When shall we three meet again? / In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"

   First Witch, Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 1 (c. 1606; eBook #1533).

2. "Double, double, toil and trouble; / Fire, burn; and cauldron, bubble."

   The witches, Macbeth, Act 4 Scene 1.

3. "Eye of newt, and toe of frog, / Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,"

   Second Witch, Macbeth, Act 4 Scene 1.

4. "But I am a good witch, and the people love me."

   The Witch of the North, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), chapter 2.

5. "But I thought all witches were wicked." / "Oh, no, that is a great mistake."

   Dorothy and the Witch of the North, chapter 2.

6. "I have been wicked in my day, but I never thought a little girl like you would ever be able to melt me and end my wicked deeds."

   The Wicked Witch of the West, chapter 12.

7. "If you had known their power you could have gone back to your Aunt Em the very first day you came to this country."

   Glinda the Good Witch, chapter 23.

8. "Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?"

   Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown" (1835; eBook #512).

9. "Witches have red eyes, and cannot see far, but they have a keen scent like the beasts, and are aware when human beings draw near."

   Grimm, "Hansel and Gretel" (1812; Taylor and Edwardes translation, eBook #2591).

10. "Nibble, nibble, gnaw, / Who is nibbling at my little house?"

    The witch, "Hansel and Gretel".

60 original witchy quotes, sorted by tone

Every line was written for this page, so use it without credit. They stay clean, because witch lines end up on classroom doors.

Empowering witch quotes (10)

• She was told to sit still. She took the broom instead.
• Call her a witch. She just stopped asking permission to know things.
• Every spell starts with deciding what you actually want.
• Her magic was never in the hat. It was in "no".
• Be the witch your younger self would follow into the woods.
• Herbs were easy. Trusting her own hands took years.
• Some women inherit recipes, some inherit questions. Witches inherit both.
• Wait at the crossroads; the right road finds you.
• Quiet witches still change the weather.
• She stopped shrinking. The room made space.

Cosy and kitchen witch quotes (10)

• Kettle on, candles lit, nothing rushed: that is the whole spell.
• My grimoire has more soup in it than curses.
• Rosemary for remembering, cinnamon for staying, tea for everything else.
• The cauldron is just a stockpot with ambitions.
• Kitchen witch rule: stir clockwise, taste often, share the first bowl.
• Bread rises faster when you talk to it kindly.
• Warm socks, hot cider, a black cat on the recipe card.
• Sunday is for slow magic: broth, books, rain.
• Thyme heals, honey soothes, and gossip keeps the stove warm.
• Salt by the door, porch light on for friends.

Funny witch quotes (10)

• My broom has more flying miles than my passport.
• I tried a love potion once. Everyone just got very hydrated.
• Not every witch flies. Some of us glare at buses.
• My cauldron is currently a laundry basket. Do not stir.
• I didn't turn him into a toad. He got there on his own.
• My familiar is a cat who ignores every command. Very on brand.
• The pointy hat adds six inches and zero visibility.
• Eye of newt sold out. Tonight's potion is mostly cheese.
• I'd cast a tidying spell, but the mess is load-bearing.
• Flew in on a broom. Leaving with the snack table.

Dark and gothic witch quotes (10)

• The candle leaned toward her before she said a word.
• Where she walked, the frost came early and left late.
• Ask the crows what she buried under the elder tree.
• Her lullabies made the wolves lie down.
• Three knocks, no footsteps, and the kettle already boiling.
• The mirror held her reflection a moment too long.
• She kept a ledger of every promise the village broke.
• Moonless nights were the only ones she trusted.
• The forest closed its path behind her like a door.
• Some fires warm you. Hers remembered you.

Short witchy captions (10)

• Broom parked. Night begins.
• Brewing something, obviously.
• Hat on, phone off.
• Spellbound and sleepy.
• Mild hex energy.
• Cauldron's warm. Come in.
• Moon first, plans later.
• Office hours: dusk till dawn.
• The cat approved this outfit.
• Small spells only tonight.

Coven quotes for your witch friends (10)

• Every witch needs a coven that answers texts after midnight.
• You hold the candle, I'll read the map.
• Of every spell I've cast, finding you worked best.
• Coven meeting: snacks, gossip, one film nobody finishes.
• My bestie and I: one broom, two opinions.
• Friends who brew together stay up too late together.
• You're the sage to my chaos.
• Come for one witch, meet the whole coven.
• Same moon, different cities, one group chat.
• Witch sisters: chosen, not born.

Which witch quote fits where?

Each tone, where it works, and the word range of this page's own lines. A phone screen favours the short end.

Short lines travel. Save the 24-word Glinda line for paper.

The history behind the witch: Salem, Europe's trials and Halloween

In Salem, Massachusetts, 19 accused people were hanged between 10 June and 22 September 1692, and Giles Corey was pressed to death on 19 September for refusing to plead, per law professor Douglas Linder's Famous Trials archive. At least four more died in prison. The University of Virginia's Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive names Bridget Bishop as the first executed.

Europe's trials were far larger. Using data on more than 43,000 people tried in 21 countries, Leeson and Russ (Economic Journal, 2018) put the total at no fewer than 80,000 tried, about half executed, while stressing the exact number is unknown. That is far below the "eight million women burned" claim from 1970s feminist writing, which historian Anne Kwaschik quotes in a 2023 open-access study.

The costume is older than Halloween. Mari Ellis Dunning (Aberystwyth University, 2025) traces the first known image of women on broomsticks to Martin Le Franc's Le Champion des Dames (1485), a year before the Malleus Maleficarum. Kwaschik records the activist group W.I.T.C.H. staging its first protest on Halloween 1968, reclaiming the witch as a symbol of revolt.

Giving one witchy quote to one person

The interactive Halloween card suits the friend who calls you their coven: they knock three times on a little haunted house, carve a jack-o'-lantern until your word glows, read your letter by flashlight and brew a potion from 3–5 memories you list. Put a coven line in the letter and add up to six photos.

It has partner, bestie, family and kids modes, and the closing 1080×1920 Boo License shows the costume you chose for them, witch included. To read the quote aloud, the cinematic Halloween page adds a voice note of up to 60 seconds and up to 12 photos. On the platform, 90.9% of started pages are published and shared, so most who start one finish it.

When a witch quote is the wrong choice

A page is a one-person greeting, not a party invitation, so a coven-wide event needs a group message or printed sign. The UI is English only, and the kids tone is spooky-cute, so save the gothic list for adults.

Skip "burn the witch" jokes: roughly 40,000 executions is a real death toll, and Kwaschik shows the witch long stood for persecuted women. Film and musical lines are still under copyright, so for anything printed or sold, use the classics or your own words.

Sources

• Linder, D. O. The Dead. Famous Trials.
• Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive, University of Virginia. Important Persons in the Salem Court Records.
• Leeson, P. T. and Russ, J. W. (August 2018). Witch Trials. The Economic Journal 128: 2066–2105.
• Kwaschik, A. (24 May 2023). "We Witches." Knowledge Wars, Experience and Spirituality in the Women's Movement During the 1970s. NTM 31(2): 171–199.
• Dunning, M. E. (13 October 2025). Black hats, cauldrons and broomsticks: the historic origins of witch iconography. The Conversation.
• Baum, L. F. (1900). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Project Gutenberg.