Posts tagged “Terry Pratchett”
Traditional values
From The Truth by Terry Pratchett: He knew about concerned citizens. Wherever they were, they all spoke the same private language, where “traditional values” meant “hang someone.”
The sword of Damocles
From The Truth by Terry Pratchett: “We could live like kings on a dollar a day, Arnold.” “What, you mean someone’d chop our heads off?” “No, I –” “Someone’d climb up inside the privy with a red-hot poker and –” “No! I meant –” “Someone’d drown us in a butt of wine?” “No, that’s dying […]
Origins of change
From The Truth by Terry Pratchett: “We’ve always looked beyond the walls for the invaders,” he said. “We always thought change came from outside, usually on the point of a sword. And then we look around and find that it comes from the inside of the head of someone you wouldn’t notice in the street. […]
Too much reading
From The Truth by Terry Pratchett: He was the younger son in any case, and family tradition sent youngest sons into some church or other, where they couldn’t do much harm on a physical level. But too much reading had taken its toll. William found that he now thought of prayer as a sophisticated way […]
Morality
From Witches Abroad, by Terry Pratchett: ‘Good and bad is tricky,’ she said. ‘I ain’t too certain about where people stand. P’raps what matters is which way you face.’
The frustrations of ruling a kingdom
Back down on the plains, if you kicked people they kicked back. Up here, when you kicked people they moved away and just waited patiently for your leg to fall off. How could a king go down in history ruling a people like that? You couldn’t oppress them any more than you could oppress a […]
Gods’ games
It would be a pretty good bet that the gods of a world like this probably do not play chess and indeed this is the case. 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 […]