Terry Pratchett Quotes
Terence David John Pratchett, OBE (born 28 April 1948) is an English [2] fantasy, science fiction, and children's author. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels.
Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s,[4][5] and as of December 2007 has sold more than 55 million books worldwide,[6] with translations made in 33 languages.
Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.
Sometimes glass glitters more than diamonds because it has more to prove.
That seems to point up a significant difference between Europeans and Americans. A European says: "I can't understand this, what's wrong with me?" An American says: "I can't understand this, what's wrong with him?"
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
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, 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.
- "Good Omens"
The truth may be out there, but the lies are inside your head.
- "Hogfather"
Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off.
- "Small Gods"
In the begining there was nothing, and it exploded.
Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.
- Discworld
For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks.
- Equal Rites
The consensus seemed to be that if really large numbers of men were sent to storm the mountain, then enough might survive the rocks to take the citadel. This is essentially the basis of all military thinking.
- Eric
Stupid men are often capable of things the clever would not dare to contemplate...
- Feet of Clay
A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.
- Guards! Guards!
An education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on.
- Hogfather
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
- Hogfather
It could not be happening because this sort of thing did not happen. Any contradictory evidence could be safely ignored.
- Jingo
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.
- Jingo
Sham Harga had run a succesful eatery for many years by always smiling, never extending credit, and realizing that most of his customers wanted meals properly balanced between the four food groups: sugar, starch, grease, and burnt crunchy bits.
- Men at Arms
[The pamphlet] was very patriotic. That is, it talked about killing foreigners.
- Monstrous Regiment
Of course, it is very important to be sober when you take an exam. Many worthwhile careers in the street- cleansing, fruit-picking and subway-guitar-playing industries have been founded on a lack of understanding of this simple fact.
- Moving Pictures
If you put butter and salt on it, it tastes like salty butter.
- Moving Pictures (regarding popcorn)
Revolutions always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions.
- Night Watch
Seeing, contrary to popular wisdom, isn't believing. It's where belief stops, because it isn't needed any more.
- Pyramids
What our ancestors would really be thinking, if they were alive today, is: "Why is it so dark in here?"
- Pyramids
Bishops move diagonally. That's why they often turn up where the kings don't expect them to be.
- Small Gods
Gods don't like people not doing much work. People who aren't busy all the time might start to think.
- Small Gods
He says gods like to see an atheist around. Gives them something to aim at.
- Small Gods
No. Men should die for lies. But the truth is too precious to die for.
- Small Gods
When the least they could do to you was everything, then the most they could do to you suddenly held no terror.
- Small Gods
Words are the litmus paper of the minds. If you find yourself in the power of someone who will use the word "commence" in cold blood, go somewhere else very quickly. But if they say "Enter", don't stop to pack.
- Small Gods
"I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?"
Death thought about it.
"Cats," he said eventually. "Cats are nice."
- Sourcery
Tourist, Rincewind decided, meant "idiot".
- The Colour of Magic
A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
- The Fifth Elephant
Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it.
- The Last Continent
There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!
- The Truth
The duke had a mind that ticked like a clock and, like a clock, it regularly went cuckoo.
- Wyrd Sisters