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a5f6a6d
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Music, landscape gardening, architecture--there was no start to his talents.
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Terry Pratchett |
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559ce6b
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There was no himself in himself.
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Terry Pratchett |
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bb36991
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Happier than a terrier in a barrel full of rats
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Terry Pratchett |
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d9e87f6
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You could say to the universe, this is not fair. And the universe would say: Oh, isn't it? Sorry. You could save people. You could get there in the nick of time. And something could snap its fingers and say, no, it has to be this way. Let me tell you how it has to be.
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Terry Pratchett |
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0c6e407
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He found that he had this sudden desperate longing for the fuming, smoky streets of Ankh-Morpork, which was always at its best in the spring, when the gummy sheen on the turbid waters of the Ankh River had a special iridescence and the eaves were full of birdsong, or at least birds coughing rhythmically
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Terry Pratchett |
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de63a52
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The games we play are lessons we learn. The assumptions we make, things we ignore, and things we change make us what we become.
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Terry Pratchett |
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4b7206f
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Roland de Chumsfanleigh (it wasn't his fault).
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Terry Pratchett |
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a8e0ef9
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Are you a hero, actually?" "Um, no. Not as such. Not at all, really. Even less than that, in fact."
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Terry Pratchett |
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289a6c9
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Barbarism? Hah! When we kills people we do it there and then, lookin' 'em in the eye, and we'd be happy to buy 'em a drink in the next world, no harm done. I never knew a barbarian who cut up people slowly in little rooms, or tortured women to make 'em look pretty, or put poison in people's grub. Civilization? If that's civilization, you can shove it where the sun don't shine!
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Terry Pratchett |
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e8a571d
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And now, because of a song, Vimes, a simple piece of music, Vimes, soft as a breath, stranger than a mountain, some very powerful states have agreed to work together to heal the problems of another autonomous state and, almost as collateral, turn some animals into people at a stroke.
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music
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Terry Pratchett |
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d240e9d
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She turned. A young man of godlike proportions* was standing in the doorway. *The better class of gods, anyway. Not the ones with the tentacles, obviously.
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Terry Pratchett |
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518a750
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You know what the greatest tragedy is in the whole world?" said Ginger, not paying him the least attention. "It's all the people who never find out what it is they really want to do or what it is they're really good at. It's all the sons who become blacksmiths because their fathers were blacksmiths. It's all the people who could be really fantastic flute players who grow old and die without ever seeing a musical instrument, so they become b..
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Terry Pratchett |
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04e5467
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But she was too big to be a thief, too honest to be an assassin, too intelligent to be a wife, and too proud to enter the only other female profession generally available.
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Terry Pratchett |
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7d03e99
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A foot on the neck is nine points of the law.
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Terry Pratchett |
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1360dd7
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You see, evil alwys contains the seeds of its own destruction' said the angel said, 'It is ultimately negative, and therefore encompasses its downfall even at its moment of apparent triumph. No matter how grandiose, how well-planned, how apparently foolproof an evil plan, the inherent sinfulness will by definition rebound upon its instigators. No matter how apparently successful it may seem upon the way, at the end it will wreck itself. It ..
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Terry Pratchett |
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ab5ab52
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They put it like that?' said Glenda, wide-eyed. 'Oh, you know the sort of thing if you read the papers a lot,' said Ponder. 'I seriously think they think that it is their job to calm people down by first of all explaining why they should be overexcited and very worried.
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the-press
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Terry Pratchett |
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511c95e
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How many books are there?" said Masklin. "Hundreds! Thousands!" "Do you know what they're all about?" Gurder looked at him blankly. "Do you know what you're saying?" he said. "No. But I want to find out." "They're about everything! You'd never believe it! They're full of words even I don't understand!" "Can you find a book which tells you how to understand words you don't understand?" said Masklin. Gurder hesitated. "It's an intriguing thou..
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reading
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Terry Pratchett |
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2cdec39
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They say this fruit be like unto the world / So sweet. Or like, say I, the heart of man / So red without and yet within, unclue'd / We find the worm, the rot, the flaw. / However glows his bloom the bite / Proves many a man be rotten at the core.
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Terry Pratchett |
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31626c9
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The trouble is, you see, that if you do know Right from Wrong, you can't choose Wrong. You just can't do it and live.
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Terry Pratchett |
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12802ff
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Gods didn't mind atheists, if they were deep, hot, fiery, atheists like Simony, who spend their whole life hating gods for not existing. That sort of atheism was a rock. It was nearly belief ...
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belief
discworld
religion
small-gods
terry-pratchett
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Terry Pratchett |
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9fd6ee5
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She waited with Billy Slick while Carrot went on the errand, and for something to say, she said, 'Billy Slick doesn't sound much like a goblin name?' Billy made a face. 'Too right! Granny calls me Of the Wind Regretfully Blown. What kind of name is that, I ask you? Who's going to take you seriously with a name like that? This is modern times, right?' He looked at her defiantly, and she thought: and so one at a time we all become human - h..
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Terry Pratchett |
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e608948
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The point I'm making," said Yo-Less, "is that you've got to help your friends, right?" He turned to Johnny. "Now, personally, I think you're very nearly totally disturbed and suffering from psychosomatica and hearing voices and seeing delusions," he said "and probably ought to be locked up in one of those white jackets with the stylish long sleeves. But that doesn't matter, 'cause we're friends."
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Terry Pratchett |
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ee9756b
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Everyone should occasionally break the law in some small and delightful way, Drumknott. It's good for the hygiene of the brain.
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Terry Pratchett |
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91b0cfb
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Ahahahahaha! Ahahahaha! Aahahaha! BEWARE!!!!! Yrs Sincerely, The Opera Ghost
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Terry Pratchett |
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3a3609c
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Sergeant Colon was lost in admiration. He'd seen people bluff on a bad hand, but he'd never seen anyone bluff with no cards.
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humour
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Terry Pratchett |
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c90e276
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That was a !" he said. "An evil spirit! The peasants down in the valleys hang up charms against them! But I thought they were just a superstition!" "No, they're a substition," said Susan. "I mean they're real, but hardly anyone really believes them. Mostly everyone believes in things that aren't real. Something very strange is going on. Those things are all over the place, and they've got . That's not right. We've got to find the person w..
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humourous
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Terry Pratchett |
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3a4b3ae
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The new captain looked up. Oh, good grief, Vimes thought. It's bloody Rust this time round! And it was indeed the Hon. Ronald Rust, the god's gift to the enemy, any enemy, and a walking encouragement to desertion. The Rust family had produced great soldiers, by the undemanding standards of 'Deduct your own casualties from those of the enemy, and if the answer is a positive number, it was a glorious victory' school of applied warfare. But Ru..
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Terry Pratchett |
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f2380a2
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The real world was far too real to leave neat little hints. It was full of too many things. It wasn't by eliminating the impossible that you got at the truth, however improbable; it was by the much harder process of eliminating the possibilities.
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truth
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Terry Pratchett |
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6f49ff9
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Swing, though, started in the wrong place. He didn't look around, and watch and learn, and then say, 'This is how people are, how do we deal with it?' No, he sat and thought: This is how the people ought to be, how do we change them?' And that was a good enough thought for a priest but not for a copper, because Swing's patient, pedantic way of operating had turned policing on its head.
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Terry Pratchett |
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bdd2510
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They weren't looking at him as if he was their only hope. They were looking at him as if he was their Certainty.
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Terry Pratchett |
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f02a960
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An hour ago Cutwell had thumbed through the index of The Monster Fun Grimoire and had cautiously assembled a number of common household ingredients and put a match to them. Funny thing about eyebrows, he mused. You never really noticed them until they'd gone.
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humour
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Terry Pratchett |
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33d4a45
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Carrot started to clap. It wasn't the clap used by middlings to encourage underlings to applaud overlings. It had genuine enthusiasm behind it which was, somehow, worse.
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Terry Pratchett |
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b2afbc9
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You don't understand!" screamed the tourist, above the terrible noise of the wingbeats. "All my life I've wanted to see dragons!" "From the inside?" shouted Rincewind. "Shut up and ride!"
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Terry Pratchett |
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b8729ca
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It was no use getting angry with Wullie; he lived in a Wullie-shaped world of his own. You had to think diagonally.
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Terry Pratchett |
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2245a36
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This is Lancre we're talkin' about. If we was men, we'd be talking about layin' down our lives for the country. As women, we can talk about laying down.
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Terry Pratchett |
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d8eb0ec
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Right,' he said uncertainty. His mind was grinding through the problem. She was a witch. Just lately there'd been a lot of gossip about witches being bad for your health. He'd been told not to let witches pass, but no one had said anything about apple sellers. Apple sellers were not a problem. It was witches that were the problem. She'd said she was an apple seller and he wasn't about to doubt a witch's word.
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Terry Pratchett |
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7bec315
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The Great God Om waxed wroth, or at least made a spirited attempt. There is a limit to the amount of wroth that can be waxed one inch from the ground, and he was right up against it.
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humor
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Terry Pratchett |
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0213266
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Perhaps that's why men did it. You didn't do it to save duchesses, or countries. You killed the enemy to stop him killing your mates, that they in turn might save you ...
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Terry Pratchett |
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27826df
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There were times when you could feel that the world would be a better place if Annagramma got the occasional slap around the ear. The silly unthinking insults, her huge lack of interest in anyone other than herself, the way she treated everyone as if they were slightly deaf and a bit stupid...it could make your blood boil. But you put up with it because every once in a while you saw through it all. Inside there was this worried, frantic lit..
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reminding
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Terry Pratchett |
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ee1fcc0
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And visitors say: how does such a big city exist? What keeps it going? Since it's got a river you can chew, where does the drinking water come from? What is, in fact, the basis of its civic economy? How come it, against all probability, ? Actually, visitors don't often say this. They usually say things like, "Which way to the, you know, the...er...you know, the young ladies, right?"
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Terry Pratchett |
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01e7f90
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Now, as Crowley would be the first to protest, most demons weren't deep down evil. In the great cosmic game they felt they occupied the same position as tax inspectors--doing an unpopular job, maybe, but essential to the overall operation of the whole thing. If it came to that, some angels weren't paragons of virtue; Crowley had met one or two who, when it came to righteously smiting the ungodly, smote a good deal harder than was strictly n..
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Terry Pratchett |
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5fc19b9
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In fact no gods anywhere play chess. They haven't got the imagination. 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.
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Terry Pratchett |
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b1fb815
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He reflected briefly that someone up there was watching over him. 'Thanks a lot,' he said bitterly.
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Terry Pratchett |
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e3b7165
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Death's pale horse looked up from its oats and gave a little whinny of greeting. The horse's name was Binky. He was a real horse. Death had tried fiery steeds and skeletal horses in the past, and found them impractical, especially the fiery ones, which tended to set light to their own bedding and stand in the middle of it looking embarrassed.
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Terry Pratchett |