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8461632
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And therefore education at the University mostly worked by the age-old method of putting a lot of young people in the vicinity of a lot of books and hoping that something would pass from one to the other, while the actual young people put themselves in the vicinity of inns and taverns for exactly the same reason.
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Terry Pratchett |
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99c8078
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There's lots of people will help you with alcohol business, but there's no one out there arranging little meetings where you can stand up and say, 'My name is Sam Vimes and I'm a really suspicious bastard.
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suspicious
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Terry Pratchett |
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f7303e3
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He talks pretty big for a gutter wizard," he muttered. "You don't understand at all," said the wizard wearily. "I'm so scared of you my spine has turned to jelly, it's just that I'm suffering from an overdose of terror right now. I mean, when I've got over that then I'll have time to be decently frightened of you."
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humor
fright
rincewind
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Terry Pratchett |
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49b39d3
|
When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they're getting worried that they won't like the truth.
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Terry Pratchett |
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0457761
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The jurisdiction of a good man extends to the end of the world.
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Terry Pratchett |
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7840ca4
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But what's worth more than gold?" "Practically everything. You, for example. Gold is heavy. Your weight in gold is not very much gold at all. Aren't you worth more than that?"
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value
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Terry Pratchett |
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cbff295
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It was Carrot who'd suggested to the Patrician that hardened criminals should be given the chance to 'serve the community' by redecorating the homes of the elderly, lending a new terror to old age and, given Ankh-Morpork's crime rate, leading to at least one old lady having her front room wallpapered so many times in six months that now she could only get in sideways.
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crime
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Terry Pratchett |
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57c3b28
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Find the story, Granny Weatherwax always said. She believed that the world was full of story shapes. If you let them, they controlled you. But if you studied them, if you found out about them... you could use them, you could change them.
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Terry Pratchett |
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9efa195
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As far as Death was aware, the sole reason for any human association with pigs and lambs was as a prelude to chops and sausages. Quite why they should dress up for children's wallpaper as well was a mystery. Hello, little folk, this is what you're going to eat... He felt that if only he could find the key to it, he'd know a lot more about human beings.
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Terry Pratchett |
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04049a0
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No one remembers the singer. The song remains.
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Terry Pratchett |
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7582876
|
Probably the last man who knew how it worked had been tortured to death years before. Or as soon as it was installed. Killing the creator was a traditional method of patent protection.
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humor
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Terry Pratchett |
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d755fbc
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Witches aren't like that. We live in harmony with the great cycles of Nature, and do no harm to anyone, and it's wicked of them to say we don't. We ought to fill their bones with hot lead.
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Terry Pratchett |
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120d4bc
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It's always surprising to be reminded that while you're watching and thinking about people, all knowing and superior, they're watching and thinking about you, right back at you.
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Terry Pratchett |
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83c3638
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That's not fair, you know. If we knew when we were going to die, people would lead better lives." IF PEOPLE KNEW WHEN THEY WERE GOING TO DIE, I THINK THEY PROBABLY WOULDN'T LIVE AT ALL."
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Terry Pratchett |
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902591f
|
Veil, you see, if I vas to say something portentous like "zer dark eyes of zer mind" back home in Uberwald, zer would be a sudden crash of thunder,' said Otto. 'And if I vas to point at a castle on a towering crag and say "Yonder is . . . zer castle" a volf would be bound to howl mournfully.' He sighed. 'In zer old country, zer scenery is psychotropic and knows vot is expected of it. Here, alas, people just look at you in a funny vay."
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uberwald
psychotropic
vampire
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Terry Pratchett |
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e643c52
|
A witch didn't do things because they seemed a good idea at the time! That was practically cackling. You had to deal every day with people who were foolish and lazy and untruthful and downright unpleasant, and you could certainly end up thinking that the world would be considerably improved if you gave them a slap. But you didn't because, as Miss Tick had once explained: a) it would make the world a better place for only a very short time; ..
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Terry Pratchett |
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f287359
|
Even the blind and meek and voiceless have gods.
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Terry Pratchett |
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b487a88
|
Oh no, not -' OF COURSE, WHAT'S SO BLOODY VEXING ABOUT THE WHOLE BUSINESS IS THAT I WAS EXPECTING TO MEET THEE IN PSEPHOPOLOLIS 'But that's five hundred miles away!' YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL ME, THE WHOLE SYSTEM'S GOT SCREWED UP AGAIN, I CAN SEE THAT. LOOK, THERE'S NO CHANCE OF YOU-? Rincewind backed away, hands spread protectively in front of him... 'Not a chance!' I COULD LEND YOU A VERY FAST HORSE. 'No!' IT WON'T HURT A BIT. 'No!' Rincewi..
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Terry Pratchett |
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0f41b93
|
And when the Patrician was unhappy, he became very democratic. He found intricate and painful ways of spreading that unhappiness as far as possible.
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Terry Pratchett |
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24d5208
|
I'm trying to have a moment o' existential dreed here, right? Crivens, it's a puir lookout if a man canna feel the chilly winds o' fate lashing aroound his netheres wi'out folks telling him he's deid, eh?
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Terry Pratchett |
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bfa8100
|
They say that the prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates a man's mind wonderfully; unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that, in the morning, it will be in a body that is going to be hanged.
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Terry Pratchett |
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a5f5c20
|
Vimes had got around to a Clean Desk policy. It was a Clean Floor strategy that eluded him at the moment.
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Terry Pratchett |
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bb30cc1
|
Little fussy Otto, in his red-lined black opera cloak with pockets for all his gear, his shiny black shoes, his carefully cut widow's peak and, not least, his ridiculous accent that grew thicker or thinner depending on who he was talking to, did not look like a threat. He looked funny, a joke, a music-hall vampire. It had never previously occurred to Vimes that, just possibly, the joke was on other people.
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Terry Pratchett |
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68fb535
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Cats are like witches. They don't fight to kill, but to win. There is a difference. There's no point in killing an opponent. That way, they won't know they've lost, and to be a real winner you have to have an opponent who is beaten and knows it. There's no triumph over a corpse, but a beaten opponent, who will remain beaten every day of the remainder of their sad and wretched life, is something to treasure.
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Terry Pratchett |
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115b82f
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These weren't cheap modern books; these were books bound in leather, and not just leather, but leather from clever cows who had given their lives for literature after a happy existence in the very best pastures.
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Terry Pratchett |
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a4d9d22
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The landscape was snow and green ice on broken mountains. These weren't old mountains, worn down by time and weather and full of gentle ski slopes, but young, sulky, adolescent mountains. They held secret ravines and merciless crevices. One yodel out of place would attract, not the jolly echo of a lonely goatherd, but fifty tons of express-delivery snow.
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Terry Pratchett |
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be56089
|
You are in favour of the common people?" said Dragon mildly. The common people?" said Vimes. "They're nothing special. They're no different from the rich and powerful except they've got no money or power. But the law should be there to balance things up a bit. So I suppose I've got to be on their side."
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policing
law
|
Terry Pratchett |
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ec6cc06
|
If you kept changing the way people saw the world, you ended up changing the way you saw yourself.
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Terry Pratchett |
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2fd1ab8
|
YOU MUST LEARN THE COMPASSION PROPER TO YOUR TRADE" "And what's that?" "A SHARP EDGE."
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Terry Pratchett |
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d5639e9
|
It's like chess, you know. The Queen saves the King.
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queens
kings
gender
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Terry Pratchett |
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404cabc
|
Credulous: having views about the world, the universe and humanity's place in it that are shared only by very unsophisticated people and the most intelligent and advanced mathematicians and physicists.
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Terry Pratchett |
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15a9b05
|
Raising the flag and singing the anthem are, while somewhat suspicious, not in themselves acts of treason.
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flag
night-watch
treason
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Terry Pratchett |
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b784add
|
He'sh mad?" "Sort of mad. But mad with lots of money." "Ah, then he can't be mad. I've been around; if a man hash lotsh of money he'sh just ecshentric."
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mad
eccentric
rincewind
twoflower
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Terry Pratchett |
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b67d1a6
|
THERE'S NO JUSTICE, said Mort. JUST US.
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Terry Pratchett |
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b5ea2d4
|
Letitia! What a name. Halfway between a salad and a sneeze.
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names
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Terry Pratchett |
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e8a19ea
|
There is a curse. They say: May you live in interesting times.
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Terry Pratchett |
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bb3c28a
|
She was not, herself, hugely in favor of motherhood in general. Obviously it was necessary, but it wasn't exactly . Even cats managed it. But women acted as if they'd been given a medal that entitled them to boss people around. It was as if, just because they'd got the label which said "mother", everyone else got a tiny part of the label that said "child"..."
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motherhood
mothers
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Terry Pratchett |
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26d1a9e
|
People needed to believe in gods, if only because it was so hard to believe in people.
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Terry Pratchett |
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0cd3fa4
|
Now that's what I call magic--seein' all that, dealin' with all that, and still goin' on. It's sittin' up all night with some poor old man who's leavin' the world, taking away such pain as you can, comfortin' their terror, seein' 'em safely on their way...and then cleanin' 'em up, layin' 'em out, making 'em neat for the funeral, and helpin' the weeping widow strip the bed and wash the sheets--which is, let me tell you, no errand for the fai..
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terry-pratchett
granny-weatherwax
|
Terry Pratchett |
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c9546ac
|
Be careful what you wish for. You never know who will be listening.
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Terry Pratchett |
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d6585a9
|
Inside every lump of coal there's a diamond waiting to get out.
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Terry Pratchett |
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b5f36c5
|
TO CHANGE THE FATE OF ONE INDIVIDUAL IS TO CHANGE THE WORLD.
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Terry Pratchett |
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56df5da
|
You have the effrontery to be squeamish, it thought at him. But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless and terrible. But this much I can tell you, you ape - the great face pressed even closer, so that Wonse was staring into the pitiless depths of his eyes - we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality.
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morality
dragons
dark-humor
|
Terry Pratchett |
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b36c2d0
|
Sometimes the only thing you could do for people was to be there.
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support
|
Terry Pratchett |