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e7590f4
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The consensus seemed to be that if really large numbers of men were sent to storm the mountain, then enough might survive the rocks to take the citadel. This is essentially the basis of all military thinking.
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Terry Pratchett |
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7ff3d78
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There are many horrible sights in the multiverse. Somehow, though, to a soul attuned to the subtle rhythms of a library, there are few worse sights than a hole where a book ought to be.
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libraries
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Terry Pratchett |
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b35c393
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They may be called the Palace Guard, the City Guard, or the Patrol. Whatever the name, their purpose in any work of heroic fantasy is identical: it is, round about Chapter Three (or ten minutes into the film) to rush into the room, attack the hero one at a time, and be slaughtered. No one ever asks them if they want to. This book is dedicated to those fine men.
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Terry Pratchett |
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2c0b2a5
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There have been times, lately, when I dearly wished that I could change the past. Well, I can't, but I can change the present, so that when it becomes the past it will turn out to be a past worth having.
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present
past
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Terry Pratchett |
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ae35051
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Chances are where you find them
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Terry Pratchett |
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307294f
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DO I DETECT A NOTE OF UNSEASONAL GRUMPINESS? said Death. NO SUGAR PIGGYWIGGY FOR YOU, ALBERT.
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Terry Pratchett |
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b2f922c
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Multiple exclamation marks,' he went on, shaking his head, 'are a sure sign of a diseased mind.
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rincewind
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Terry Pratchett |
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9d69e3e
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Any wizard bright enough to survive for five minutes was also bright enough to realize that if there was any power in demonology, then it lay with the demons. Using it for your own purposes would be like trying to beat mice to death with a rattlesnake.
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Terry Pratchett |
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0a97089
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If you want to change a whole people, then you start with the girls. It stands to reason: they learn faster, and they pass on what they learn to their children.
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girl-power
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Terry Pratchett |
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29f791f
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It's vital to remember who you really are. It's very important. It isn't a good idea to rely on other people or things to do it for you, you see. They always get it wrong.
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Terry Pratchett |
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a8b71dc
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Sometimes words need music too. Sometimes the descriptions are not enough. Books should be written with soundtracks, like films.
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Terry Pratchett |
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3671d33
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The truth is that even big collections of ordinary books distort space, as can readily be proved by anyone who has been around a really old-fashioned secondhand bookshop, one that looks as though they were designed by M. Escher on a bad day and has more stairways than storeys and those rows of shelves which end in little doors that are surely too small for a full-sized human to enter. The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = m..
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Terry Pratchett |
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e15365b
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I'm trying to remember how you tell the time by looking at the sun." -"I should leave it for a while, it's too bright to see the numbers at the moment."
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time
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Terry Pratchett |
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3e5fd2d
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He moved in a way that suggested he was attempting the world speed record for the nonchalant walk.
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Terry Pratchett |
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12d5442
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The thing about football - the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football.
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soccer
sports
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Terry Pratchett |
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c0160dc
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I thought unicorns were more . . . Fluffy.
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Terry Pratchett |
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9fbaba8
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If you really want to upset a witch, do her a favor which she has no means of repaying. The unfulfilled obligation will nag at her like a hangnail.
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Terry Pratchett |
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9654b61
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You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage. Besides you don't build a better world by choppin' heads off and giving decent girls away to frogs.
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Terry Pratchett |
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ab6c75e
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People don't alter history any more than birds alter the sky, they just make brief patterns in it.
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Terry Pratchett |
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86d50bd
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Humans had built a world inside the world, which reflected it in pretty much the same way as a drop of water reflected the landscape. And yet ... and yet ... Inside this little world they had taken pains to put all the things you might think they would want to escape from -- hatred, fear, tyranny, and so forth. Death was intrigued. They thought they wanted to be taken out of themselves, and every art humans dreamt up took them further . He..
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theatre
escape
escapism
human-nature
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Terry Pratchett |
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86c3bfe
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The thing about witchcraft," said Mistress Weatherwax, "is that it's not like school at all. First you get the test, and then afterward you spend years findin' out how you passed it. It's a bit like life in that respect"
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Terry Pratchett |
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61c62be
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I USHERED SOULS INTO THE NEXT WORLD. I WAS THE GRAVE OF ALL HOPE. I WAS THE ULTIMATE REALITY. I WAS THE ASSASSIN AGAINST WHOM NO LOCK WOULD HOLD. "Yes, point taken, but do you have any particular skills?"
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Terry Pratchett |
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885f151
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Watching a dog try to chew a large piece of toffee is a pastime fit for gods. Mr. Fusspot's mixed ancestry had given him a dexterity of jaw that was truly awesome. He somersaulted happily around the floor, making faces like a rubber gargoyle in a washing machine.
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simile
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Terry Pratchett |
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f5a8830
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Picture a tall, dark figure, surrounded by cornfields... NO, YOU CAN'T RIDE A CAT. WHO EVER HEARD OF THE DEATH OF RATS RIDING A CAT? THE DEATH OF RATS WOULD RIDE SOME KIND OF DOG. Picture more fields, a great horizon-spanning network of fields, rolling in gentle waves... DON'T ASK ME I DON'T KNOW. SOME KIND OF TERRIER, MAYBE. ...fields of corn, alive, whispering in the breeze... RIGHT, AND THE DEATH OF FLEAS CAN RIDE IT TOO. THAT WAY YOU KI..
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Terry Pratchett |
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77b444f
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Everywhere I look, I see something holy.
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Terry Pratchett |
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18439f7
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The trouble with life was that you didn't get a chance to practice before doing it for real.
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Terry Pratchett |
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30e16c2
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Granny Weatherwax was not lost. She wasn't the kind of person who ever became lost. It was just that, at the moment, while she knew exactly where SHE was, she didn't know the position of anywhere else.
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Terry Pratchett |
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09fc36d
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One day I'll work out what it is you are saying, my lad, and then you'll be in trouble.
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sarcasm
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Terry Pratchett |
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d501bd4
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Words are the litmus paper of the mind.
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Terry Pratchett |
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17222e7
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Death was standing behind a lectern, poring over a map. He looked at Mort as if he wasn't entirely there. YOU HAVEn'T HEARD Og' THE BAY Og' MAnTE, HAVE YOU? he said. "No, sir," said Mort. FAMOUs sHIPWRECK THERE. "Was there?" THERE WILL BE, said Death, Ig' I CAn g'InD THE DAMn PLACE."
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humor
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Terry Pratchett |
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6f258ae
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Cutangle: While I'm still confused and uncertain, it's on a much higher plane, d'you see, and at least I know I'm bewildered about the really fundamental and important facts of the universe. Treatle: I hadn't looked at it like that, but you're absolutely right. He's really pushed back the boundaries of ignorance. They both savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were only ignorant of ordinary thi..
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Terry Pratchett |
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83658cf
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The where the story happened was a world on the back of four elephants perched on the shell of a giant turtle. That's the advantage of space. It's big enough to hold practically , and so, eventually, it does. People think that it is strange to have a turtle ten thousand miles long and an elephant more than two thousand miles tall, which just shows that the human brain is ill-adapted for thinking and was probably originally designed for c..
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myth
wonder
humor
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Terry Pratchett |
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65ae590
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It was the living who ignored the strange and wonderful, because life was too full of the boring and mundane.
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humorous
life
inspirational
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Terry Pratchett |
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6485a8a
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That's one form of magic, of course." "What, just knowing things?" "Knowing things that other people don't know."
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Terry Pratchett |
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a6e195e
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It was much better to imagine men in some smokey room somewhere, made mad and cynical by privilege and power, plotting over brandy. You had to cling to this sort of image, because if you didn't then you might have to face the fact that bad things happened because ordinary people, the kind who brushed the dog and told the children bed time stories, were capable of then going out and doing horrible things to other ordinary people. It was so m..
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Terry Pratchett |
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e5dfa1d
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He said it was better to belong where you don't belong than not to belong where you used to belong, remembering when you used to belong there.
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home
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Terry Pratchett |
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18ec454
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Two types of people laugh at the law: those that break it and those that make it.
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Terry Pratchett |
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6b6f208
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I think," he said, "I think, if you want thousands, you have to fight for one."
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Terry Pratchett |
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c229aab
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Witches were a bit like cats. They didn't much like one another's company, but they did like to know where all the other witches were, just in case they needed them.
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witch
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Terry Pratchett |
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55a6e99
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Unseen University had never admitted women, muttering something about problems with the plumbing, but the real reason was an unspoken dread that if women were allowed to mess around with magic they would probably be embarrassingly good at it...
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women
fantasy
humor
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Terry Pratchett |
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25007e0
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They always gives me bath salts," complained Nobby. "And bath soap and bubble bath and herbal bath lumps and tons of bath stuff and I can't think why, 'cos it's not as if I hardly ever has a bath. You'd think they'd take the hint, wouldn't you?"
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gifts
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Terry Pratchett |
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f8ccef0
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Who shall I shoot? You choose. Now, listen very carefully: where's your coffee? You've got coffee, haven't you? C'mon, everyone's got coffee! Spill the beans!
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humor
coffee
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Terry Pratchett |
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f610bfa
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And these are your reasons, my lord?" "Do you think I have others?" said Lord Vetinari. "My motives, as ever, are entirely transparent." Hughnon reflected that 'entirely transparent' meant either that you could see right through them or that you couldn't see them at all."
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Terry Pratchett |
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dc897df
|
I'll never be like this again . . . I'll never again feel as tall as the sky and as old as the hills and as strong as the sea. I've been given something for a while, and the price of it is that I have to give it back. And the is giving it back, too. No human could live like this. You could spend a day looking at a flower to see how wonderful it is, and that wouldn't get the milking done. No wonder we dream our way through our lives. To b..
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Terry Pratchett |