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Terry Pratchett Quotes - Page 29

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People are bound to get excited when they see a ten-million-ton starship trying to fly down the street.

People are bound to get excited when they see a ten-million-ton starship trying to fly down the street.

Terry Pratchett
People, Trying, Excited

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 to the truth, however improbable; it was by the much harder process of eliminating the possibilities.

Terry Pratchett
Real, Hints, World
Terry Pratchett (2008). “Feet Of Clay: (Discworld Novel 19)”, p.205, Random House

This is where the gods play games with the lives of men, on a board which is at one and the same time a simple playing area and the whole world. And Fate always wins.

Terry Pratchett
Fate, Winning, Simple
Terry Pratchett (2008). “Interesting Times: (Discworld Novel 17)”, p.11, Random House

I don't think about the end game. I've got lots to occupy my mind. It's the rage that keeps me going.

Terry Pratchett
Thinking, Games, Mind
"'The best thing I ever did was stand up and say I have Alzheimer's': Terry Pratchett speaks to Fiona Phillips". Interview with Fiona Phillips, www.mirror.co.uk. November 14, 2012.

The universe was bad enough without people poking it.

Terry Pratchett
People, Enough, Universe
Terry Pratchett (2009). “Soul Music: (Discworld Novel 16)”, p.207, Random House

Last night there seemed to be a chance. Anything was possible last night. That was the trouble with last nights. They were always followed by this mornings.

Terry Pratchett
Morning, Night, Lasts
Terry Pratchett (2008). “Small Gods: (Discworld Novel 13)”, p.340, Random House

If there were such a thing as an inter-city thieving contest, Ankh-Morpork would bring home the trophy and probably everyone’s wallets.

Terry Pratchett
Home, Cities, Ankh

But then science is nothing but a series of questions that lead to more questions.

Terry Pratchett
Series

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 in. He was fascinated.

Terry Pratchett
Art, Pain, Taken
Terry Pratchett (2008). “Wyrd Sisters: (Discworld Novel 6)”, p.328, Random House

They called themselves the Munrungs. It meant The People, or The True Human Beings. It's what most people call themselves, to begin with. And then one day the tribe meets some other People or, if it's not been a good day, The Enemy. If only they'd think up a name like Some More True Human Beings, it'd save a lot of trouble later on

Terry Pratchett
Good Day, Thinking, Names
Terry Pratchett (2009). “The Carpet People”, p.1, Random House

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.

Terry Pratchett
Lonely, Echoes, Ice
Terry Pratchett (2009). “Reaper Man: (Discworld Novel 11)”, p.342, Random House

And what had he wanted? He'd never sat down to think about it. But mostly, he wanted yesterday to be different from today.

Terry Pratchett
Thinking, Yesterday, Different
Terry Pratchett (2007). “Making Money”, Harper

The more you think about it, the more amazing the everyday world of human beings becomes: most of it doesn't actually exist at all.

Terry Pratchett
Thinking, Everyday, World
Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen, Terry Pratchett (2011). “The Science Of Discworld Revised Edition”, p.185, Random House

These weren't encouraged in the city, since the heft and throw of a longbow's arrow could send it through an innocent bystander a hundred yards away instead of the innocent bystander at whom it was aimed.

Terry Pratchett
Bystanders, Cities, Arrows
Terry Pratchett (2008). “Guards! Guards!: (Discworld Novel 8)”, p.71, Random House

I don't see what's so triffic about creating people as people and then gettin' upset 'cos they act like people.

Terry Pratchett
Creating, People, Upset

Winston Churchill said 'In war time, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies'. Any book called The Truth should therefore have one.

Terry Pratchett
War, Lying, Book

You do know you could find yourself charged with being a dominant species while under the influence of impulse-driven consumerism, don't you?

Terry Pratchett
Finding Yourself, Influence, Driven

Of course, like all the informal inhabitants of the University the roaches were a little unusual, but there was something particularly unpleasant about the sound of billions of very small feet hitting the stones in perfect time. Rincewind stepped gingerly over the marching column. The Librarian jumped it. The Luggage, of course, followed them with a noise like someone tapdancing over a bag of crisps.

Terry Pratchett
Feet, Perfect, Sound

That, lad," he said proudly, "was some of the worst poetry I have heard for a long time. It was offensive to the ear and a torrrture to the soul....We'll make a gonnagle out of ye yet!

Terry Pratchett
Long, Soul, Ears

Occasionally he would very nearly swear.

Terry Pratchett
Swear

It is at this point that normal language gives up, and goes and has a drink.

Terry Pratchett
Giving Up, Normal, Language
Terry Pratchett (2008). “The Colour Of Magic: (Discworld Novel 1)”, p.209, Random House

I’ve seen excitement, and I’ve seen boredom. And boredom was best.

Terry Pratchett
Boredom, Excitement
Terry Pratchett (2008). “The Colour Of Magic: (Discworld Novel 1)”, p.244, Random House

The city's full of people who you just see around.

Terry Pratchett
Cities, People
Terry Pratchett (2008). “Men At Arms: (Discworld Novel 15)”, p.189, Random House

The short conversation that follows eventually led to a tree religion. Its tenet of faith was this: a tree that was a good tree and led a clean decent and upstanding life could be assured of a future life after death. If it was very good indeed it would eventually be reincarnated as five thousand rolls of lavatory paper.

Terry Pratchett
Tree, Paper, Clean

Legends don't have to make sense. They just have to be beautiful. Or at least interesting.

Terry Pratchett
Beautiful, Interesting, Legends
Terry Pratchett, Jacqueline Simpson (2008). “The Folklore of Discworld”, Doubleday UK

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