Quotes from Terry Pratchett

Every step is a first step if it's a step in the right direction.

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

Books bend space and time. One reason the owners of those aforesaid little rambling, poky secondhand bookshops always seem slightly unearthly is that many of them really are, having strayed into this world after taking a wrong turning in their own bookshops in worlds where it is considered commendable business practice to wear carpet slippers all the time and open your shop only when you feel like it.

Where's the pleasure in bein' the winner if the loser ain't alive to know they've lost?

Strength enough to build a home, Time enough to hold a child, Love enough to break a heart

You say that you people don't burn folk and sacrifice people anymore, but that's what true faith would mean, y'see? Sacrificin' your own life, one day at a time, to the flame, declarin' the truth of it, workin' for it, breathin' the soul of it. That's religion. Anything else is just . . . is just bein' nice. And a way of keepin' in touch with the neighbors.

Got to be worth a try, I suppose, said Crowley. It's not as if I haven't got lots of other work to do, God knows. His forehead creased for a moment, and then he slapped the steering wheel triumphantly. Ducks! he shouted. What? That's what water slides off! Aziraphale took a deep breath. Just drive the car, please, he said wearily.

Personal isn't the same as important.

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.

Good or bad, do it as you. Too many lies and there's no truth to go back to.

It's not lying when you do it to officers!

but what should we do when the highborn and wealthy take to crime? Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger, how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man who breaks the law out of greed?

I reckon responsible behavior is something to get when you grow older. Like varicose veins.

I'm not a lady, I'm a witch.

That's what's so stupid about the whole magic thing, you know. You spend twenty years learning the spell that makes nude virgins appear in your bedroom, and then you're so poisoned by quicksilver fumes and half-blind from reading old grimoires that you can't remember what happens next.

Nac Mac Feegle! The Wee Free Men! Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willna' be fooled again!

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.

If Not You, Who Else?

You know how to pray, don't you? Just put your hands together and hope.

All the shops have been smashed open. There was a whole bunch of people across the street helping themselves to musical instruments, can you believe that? Yeah, said Rincewind. ...Luters, I expect.

If he'd been a hero, he would have taken the opportunity to say, That's what I call sorted! Since he wasn't a hero, he threw up.

You did something because it had always been done, and the explanation was, 'But we've always done it this way.' A million dead people can't have been wrong, can they?

Belief, he says. Belief shifts. People start out believing in the god and end up believing in the structure.

When I am old I shall wear midnight.