|
c266c36
|
It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
bbce618
|
The trouble is you can shut your eyes but you can't shut your mind.
|
|
terry-pratchett
philosophy
wintersmith
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
50eecad
|
He says gods like to see an atheist around. Gives them something to aim at.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
e8a00f1
|
The men in the room suddenly realized that they did not want to know her better. She was beautiful, but she was beautiful in the way a forest fire was beautiful: something to be admired from a distance, not up close. And she held her sword, and she smiled like a knife.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
1918ed0
|
Nanny Ogg looked under her bed in case there was a man there. Well, you never knew your luck.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
6670535
|
This I choose to do. If there is a price, this I choose to pay. If it is my death, then I choose to die. Where this takes me, there I choose to go. I choose. This I choose to do.
|
|
responsibility
choice
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
8bded4b
|
Real children do not go hoppity skip unless they are on drugs.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
bff98bb
|
Gods prefer simple, vicious games, where you Do Not Achieve Transcendence but Go Straight To Oblivion; a key to the understanding of all religion is that a god's idea of amusement is Snakes and Ladders with greased rungs.
|
|
religion
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
8d73e67
|
The gods of the Disc have never bothered much about judging the souls of the dead, and so people only go to hell if that's where they believe, in their deepest heart, that they deserve to go. Which they won't do if they don't know about it. This explains why it is so important to shoot missionaries on sight.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
0fca734
|
Everything starts somewhere, though many physicists disagree. But people have always been dimly aware of the problem with the start of things. They wonder how the snowplough driver gets to work, or how the makers of dictionaries look up the spelling of words.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
e3b4cdf
|
Do you know what it feels like to be aware of every star, every blade of grass? Yes. You do. You call it 'opening your eyes again.' But you do it for a moment. We have done it for eternity. No sleep, no rest, just endless... endless experience, endless awareness. Of everything. All the time. How we envy you, envy you! Lucky humans, who can close your minds to the endless deeps of space! You have this thing you call... boredom? That is the r..
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
81cacf5
|
No, what he didn't like about heroes was that they were usually suicidally gloomy when sober and homicidally insane when drunk.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
d75d06a
|
A good plan isn't one where someone wins, it's where nobody thinks they've lost.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
c01dc11
|
Steal five dollars and you're a common thief. Steal thousands and you're either the government or a hero.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
92d10c0
|
She heard him mutter, 'Can you take away this grief?' 'I'm sorry,' she replied. 'Everyone asks me. And I would not do so even if I knew how. It belongs to you. Only time and tears take away grief; that is what they are for.
|
|
loss
magic
witchcraft
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
eb7ad2b
|
Just because someone's a member of an ethnic minority doesn't mean they're not a nasty small-minded little jerk.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
45afd0c
|
Something Vimes had learned as a young guard drifted up from memory. If you to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat. They'll watch you . They'll put off the moment of murder like another ..
|
|
samuel-vimes
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
71a00eb
|
Blessings be on this house," Granny said, perfunctorily. It was always a good opening remark for a witch. It concentrated people's minds on what other things might be on this house."
|
|
witches
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
0b886aa
|
She was also, by the standards of other people, lost. She would not see it like that. She knew where she was, it was just that everywhere else didn't.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
a6d5d7e
|
Joy is to fun what the deep sea is to a puddle. It's a feeling inside that can hardly be contained.
|
|
joy
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
cd2c20e
|
There was this about vampires : they could never look scruffy. Instead, they were... what was the word... deshabille. It meant untidy, but with bags and bags of style.
|
|
vampires
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
b6878a6
|
Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked. This is because most books on witchcraft are written by men.
|
|
sexism
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
895c38a
|
The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn't sure it was worth all the effort.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
611ed43
|
Crowley had always known that he would be around when the world ended, because he was immortal and wouldn't have any alternative. But he hoped it was a long way off. Because he rather liked people. It was major failing in a demon. Oh, he did his best to make their short lives miserable, because that was his job, but nothing he could think up was half as bad as the stuff they thought up themselves. They seemed to have a talent for it. It was..
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
b3c16c7
|
You can't map a sense of humor. Anyway, what is a fantasy map but a space beyond which There Be Dragons? On the Discworld we know that There Be Dragons Everywhere. They might not all have scales and forked tongues, but they Be Here all right, grinning and jostling and trying to sell you souvenirs.
|
|
maps
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
c473b66
|
Some things are fairly obvious when it's a seven-foot skeleton with a scythe telling you them
|
|
macabre
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
424212b
|
I commend my soul to any god that can find it.
|
|
moist-von-lipwig
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
ff113bc
|
I get it,' said the prisoner. 'Good Cop, Bad Cop, eh?' If you like.' said Vimes. 'But we're a bit short staffed here, so if I give you a cigarette would you mind kicking yourself in the teeth?
|
|
violence
interrogation
police
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
c952730
|
She walked quickly through the darkness with the frank stride of someone who was at least certain that the forest, on this damp and windy night, contained strange and terrible things and she was it.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
c518a0c
|
Cats will amusingly tolerate humans only until someone comes up with a tin opener that can be operated with a paw.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
bbadaf3
|
What's a philosopher?' said Brutha. Someone who's bright enough to find a job with no heavy lifting,' said a voice in his head.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
e7a1299
|
The duke had a mind that ticked like a clock and, like a clock, it regularly went cuckoo.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
429a291
|
Goodness is about what you do. Not who you pray to.
|
|
prayer
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
27e50a2
|
Once we were blobs in the sea, and then fishes, and then lizards and rats and then monkeys, and hundreds of things in between. This hand was once a fin, this hand once had claws! In my human mouth I have the pointy teeth of a wolf and the chisel teeth of a rabbit and the grinding teeth of a cow! Our blood is as salty as the sea we used to live in! When we're frightened, the hair on our skin stands up, just like it did when we had fur. We ..
|
|
fish
monkeys
teeth
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
c831ccf
|
Some pirates achieved immortality by great deeds of cruelty or derring-do. Some achieved immortality by amassing great wealth. But the captain had long ago decided that he would, on the whole, prefer to achieve immortality by not dying.
|
|
immortality
pirates
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
22943cd
|
Them as can do has to do for them as can't. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
f23af89
|
Most witches don't believe in gods. They know that the gods exist, of course. They even deal with them occasionally. But they don't believe in them. They know them too well. It would be like believing in the postman.
|
|
witches
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
5e37eed
|
And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things.
|
|
people
sin
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
227ef12
|
YOU FEAR TO DIE? "It's not that I don't want... I mean, I've always...it's just that life is a habit that's hard to break..."
|
|
fear
humor
life
habit
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
6558356
|
What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
ca64020
|
The secret is not to dream," she whispered. "The secret is to wake up. Waking up is harder. I have woken up and I am real. I know where I come from and I know where I'm going. You cannot fool me any more. Or touch me. Or anything that is mine."
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
207c29d
|
People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
d92f5a8
|
She'd become a governess. It was one of the few jobs a known lady could do. And she'd taken to it well. She'd sworn that if she did indeed ever find herself dancing on rooftops with chimney sweeps she'd beat herself to death with her own umbrella.
|
|
|
Terry Pratchett |
|
9cf9a63
|
I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are good people and bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people,
|
|
good-and-evil
idealism
politics
vetinari
|
Terry Pratchett |