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Terry Pratchett Quotes - Page 13

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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

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.

Terry Pratchett
Powerful, Dragons, Law

I taught myself more in the library than school taught me.

Terry Pratchett
School, Library, Taught

God moves in extremely mysterious, not to say, circuitous ways. God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, ie., everybody, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

Terry Pratchett
Moving, Dark, Player
"Good Omens". Book by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, 1990.

Your average witch is not, by nature, a social animal as far as other witches are concerned. There's a conflict of dominant personalities. There's a group of ringleaders without a ring. There's the basic unwritten rule of witchcraft, which is 'Don't do what you will, do what I say.' The natural size of a coven is one. Witches only get together when they can't avoid it.

Terry Pratchett
Animal, Average, Personality

I saved a man's life once," said Granny. "Special medicine, twice a day. Boiled water with a bit of berry juice in it. Told him I'd bought it from the dwarves. That's the biggest part of doct'rin, really. Most people'll get over most things if they put their minds to it, you just have to give them an interest.

Terry Pratchett
Men, Dwarves, Medicine

Lots of ingenuity gets you through times with no money better than money gets you through times of no ingenuity.

Terry Pratchett
Rough Times, No Money, Ingenuity
Source: www.denofgeek.com

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
Dream, Real, Secret
Terry Pratchett (2008). “The Wee Free Men: (Discworld Novel 30)”, p.283, Random House

Winners never talk about glorious victories. Thats because they're the ones who see what the battle field looks like afterwards. Its only the losers who have glorious victories.

Terry Pratchett
Peace, War, Victory
Terry Pratchett (2008). “Small Gods: (Discworld Novel 13)”, p.146, Random House

Time was something that largely happened to other people; he viewed it in the same way that people on the shore viewed the sea. It was big and it was out there, and sometimes it was an invigorating thing to dip a toe into, but you couldn't live in it all the time. Besides, it always made his skin wrinkle.

Terry Pratchett
Wrinkles, Sea, People
"Thief Of Time". Book by Terry Pratchett, 2001.

She got on with her education. In her opinion, school kept on trying to interfere with it.

Terry Pratchett
School, Trying, Opinion
Terry Pratchett (2009). “Soul Music: (Discworld Novel 16)”, p.25, Random House

It was also a room full of books and made of books. There was no actual furniture; this is to say, the desk and chairs were shaped out of books. It looked as though many of them were frequently referred to, because they lay open with other books used as bookmarks.

Terry Pratchett
Book, Rooms, Furniture
Terry Pratchett (2008). “Going Postal: (Discworld Novel 33)”, p.238, Random House

I hate cats." Death's face became a little stiffer, if that were possible. The blue glow in his eye sockets flickered red for an instant. "I SEE," he said. The tone suggested that death was too good for cat haters.

Terry Pratchett
Hate, Cat, Eye

If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

Terry Pratchett
Real, Cynical, Fantasy
Terry Pratchett (2016). “Seriously Funny: The Endlessly Quotable Terry Pratchett”, p.9, Random House

Oh, there's plenty of reasons. I just don't know which one.

Terry Pratchett
Reason, Knows, Plenty

At such times the universe gets a little closer to us. They are strange times, times of beginnings and endings. Dangerous and powerful. And we feel it even if we don't know what it is. These times are not necessarily good, and not necessarily bad. In fact, what they are depends on what *we* are.

Terry Pratchett
Powerful, Facts, Strange Times

Take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. and yet... and yet you act as if there is some ideal order in the world, as if there is some... some rightness in the universe by which it may be judged.

Terry Pratchett
Order, Justice, Molecules
"Fictional character: Death". "Terry Pratchett's Hogfather", www.imdb.com. 2006.

The thief, as will become apparent, was a special type of thief. This thief was an artist of theft. Other thieves merely stole everything that was not nailed down, but this thief stole the nails as well.

Terry Pratchett
Artist, Special, Nails

WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HADN'T SAVED HIM? "Yes! The sun would have risen just the same, yes?" NO "Oh, come on. You can't expect me to believe that. It's an astronomical fact." THE SUN WOULD NOT HAVE RISEN. ... "Really? Then what would have happened, pray?" A MERE BALL OF FLAMING GAS WOULD HAVE ILLUMINATED THE WORLD.

Terry Pratchett
Believe, Balls, World
"Hogfather". Book by Terry Pratchett, 1996.

I'd rather be a rising ape than a falling angel.

Terry Pratchett
Fall, Angel, Rising
Terry Pratchett (2014). “A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Non-fiction”, p.150, Random House

Everything happens for a reason, except possibly football. (in Thief of Time)

Terry Pratchett
Football, Everything Happens For A Reason, Thieves

People were stupid, sometimes. They thought the Library was a dangerous place because of all the magical books, which was true enough, but what made it really one of the most dangerous places there could ever be was the simple fact that it was a library.

Terry Pratchett
Stupid, Book, Simple
"Guards! Guards!". Book by Terry Pratchett, 1989.

Taxation, gentlemen, is very much like dairy farming. The task is to extract the maximum amount of milk with the minimum amount of moo.

Terry Pratchett
Gentleman, Tasks, Taxation
Terry Pratchett (2013). “Jingo: Stage Adaptation”, p.17, A&C Black

Granny Weatherwax was often angry. She considered it one of her strong points. Genuine anger was one of the world's greatest creative forces. But you had to learn how to control it. That didn't mean you let it trickle away. it meant you dammed it, carefully, let it develop a working head, let it drown whole valleys of the mind and then, just when the whole structure was about to collapse, opened a tiny pipeline at the base and let the iron-hard stream of wrath power the turbines of revenge.

Terry Pratchett
Strong, Revenge, Mean

Sometimes the crime follows the punishment, which only serves to prove the foresight of the Great God." "That's what my grandmother used to say," said Brutha automatically. "Indeed? I would like to know more about this formidable lady." "She used to give me a thrashing every morning because I would certainly do something to deserve it during the day," said Brutha. "A most complete understanding of the nature of mankind.

Terry Pratchett
Morning, Grandmother, Punishment

And so the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn't that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people. As soon as you saw people as things to be measured, they didn't measure up.

Terry Pratchett
Children, Government, People
Terry Pratchett (2002). “Night watch”, Doubleday UK

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