Quotes from Terry Pratchett

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? I make no suggestion that one side or other is right, but observation over many years leads me to believe it is true.

It seems that when you have cancer you are a brave battler against the disease, but when you have Alzheimer's you are an old fart. That's how people see you. It makes you feel quite alone.

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 [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant 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.

I believe it should be possible for someone stricken with a serious and ultimately fatal illness to choose to die peacefully with medical help, rather than suffer.

Personal isn't the same as important.

The price of being the best is having to be the best.

Tourist, Rincewind had decided, meant idiot.

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.

Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.

It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.

Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.

Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

If cats looked like frogs we'd realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. Style. That's what people remember.

In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.

Time is a drug. Too much of it kills you.

Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.

In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.

Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.

DON'T THINK OF IT AS DYING, said Death. JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.

It's not worth doing something unless someone, somewhere, would much rather you weren't doing it.

If you have enough book space, I don't want to talk to you.

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 [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant 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 .

Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.