A Blink of the Screen by Terry Pratchett
‘If you could read I’d send you a postcard, if I could write.’ (BOS)
He moved very much like a man who’d got his ideas about stealth from watching adventure films. (BOS)
'What you have to realise about madmen is that they're mad.' (BOS)
Linsay was a left-ear person, Valiente realised. He had seen plenty of them: their eyes glazed slightly and they stared fixedly at your left ear, while their mouths spouted the truth about flying saucers, the great world conspiracy, or a one-born-every-minute evangelism. Inside everyone was a left-ear person waiting to get out. (BOS)
'Mankind isn't really evil. It hasn't got enough dignity to be evil.' (BOS)
'... If there's one thing you can say about them it's that they're vicious little sods.' (BOS)
She didn't look like a mass murderer, but Linsay recalled that mass murderers never did. (BOS)
There is a blissful period of existence which the Yen Buddhists* call plinki. It is defined precisely as the interval between waking up and being hit on the back of the head by all the problems that kept you awake the night before; it ends when you realize that this was the morning everything was going to look better in, and it doesn’t.
* Like Zen Buddhists, only bigger begging bowls. (BOS)
Where does a seven-foot barbarian hero go? Dogger thought. Wherever he likes. (BOS)
Of course I don't feel mad, but I wouldn't, would I? (BOS)
‘You can’t carouse organically.’ (BOS)
'Throwing women over your pommel and riding off into the night isn't approved of around here. It's probably an ism,' he added gloomily. (BOS)
... he was a true collector - he didn't worry whether the stuff was actually good or not. It just had to exist. (BOS)
Nothing serious has bits of apple floating in it. (BOS)
… as though they were alive and dead at the same time, like Cliff Richard. (BOS)
I hadn't noticed him before because he was one of these people you wouldn't notice if he was with you in a wardrobe.
He smiled the sort of smile you have to learn and stuck out his hand. Can't remember his face. He had a warm, friendly handshake, the kind where you want to have a wash afterwards. (BOS)
Life can get very complicated for men in overalls who have problems with men in suits. (BOS)
You shouldn’t turn in on yourself. It’s not what being human means. You got to reach out. (BOS)
There’s no slavery as such, except to tradition, but tradition wields a heavy lash. I mean, maybe democracy isn’t perfect, but at least we don’t let ourselves be outvoted by the dead. (BOS)
It’s just like I’ve always said – women have always had a greater stake in technology than have men. We’d still be living in trees, otherwise. Piped water, electric lighting, stoves that you don’t need to shove wood into – I reckon that behind half the great inventors in history were their wives, nagging them into fiding a cleaner way of doing the chores. (BOS)
That’s the thing about time-travel, you’ve got all the time in the world. (BOS)
‘I thought you told me a dimocracy was where people did what they wanted to do,’ she said.
‘It’s a democracy,’ I said. ‘And it’s fine for people to do what they want to do, provided they do what’s right.’ (BOS)
‘… you can’t start with a democracy. You have to work up through stuff like tyranny and monarchy first. That way people are so relieved when they get to democracy that they hang on to it.’ (BOS)
When people talk about their great past they’re usually trying to excuse their mediocre present. (BOS)
… all real patriots can never remember more than one verse of their anthem, and get through the subsequent verses by going ‘ner hner ner’ until they reach an outcrop of words they recognise, which they sing very boldly to give the impression that they really had been singing all the other words as well but had been drowned out by the people around them. (BOS)
No one like a child who pays attention too hard, whose eyes follow your every move, and who listens very carefully to everything you say. It’s like talking to a great big bottomless ear. (BOS)
The traditional enmity between dwarfs and trolls has been explained away by one simple statement: one species is made of rock, the other is made of miners. But in truth the enmity is there because no one can remember when it wasn’t, and so it continues because everything is done in completely justifiable revenge for the revenge that was taken in response to the revenge for the vengeance that was taken earlier, and so on. Humans never do this sort of thing, much. (BOS)
For according to the trollish philosopher Plateau, ‘if you want to understan’ an enemy, you gotta walk a mile in his shoes. Den, if he’s still you enemy, at least you’re a mile away and he’s got no shoes.’ (BOS)
… there is no point in being the official bad person if you play by the rules. (BOS)
Even squirrels deserved their privacy, the dirty little devils. (BOC)
… the smug face of virtue triumphant could almost be as horrible as wickedness revealed. (BOC)
Knowing how bad you could be is a great encouragement to being good. (BOC)
The more you faced the light the brighter is grew, and one day for the brief respite that it brought you’d look over your shoulder. And you’d see how lovely and rich and dark and beguiling your shadow had become … (BOC)
She’d tried being alone with her thoughts once, but had never tried it again. It had been too dull. (BOC)
He moved very much like a man who’d got his ideas about stealth from watching adventure films. (BOS)
'What you have to realise about madmen is that they're mad.' (BOS)
Linsay was a left-ear person, Valiente realised. He had seen plenty of them: their eyes glazed slightly and they stared fixedly at your left ear, while their mouths spouted the truth about flying saucers, the great world conspiracy, or a one-born-every-minute evangelism. Inside everyone was a left-ear person waiting to get out. (BOS)
'Mankind isn't really evil. It hasn't got enough dignity to be evil.' (BOS)
'... If there's one thing you can say about them it's that they're vicious little sods.' (BOS)
She didn't look like a mass murderer, but Linsay recalled that mass murderers never did. (BOS)
There is a blissful period of existence which the Yen Buddhists* call plinki. It is defined precisely as the interval between waking up and being hit on the back of the head by all the problems that kept you awake the night before; it ends when you realize that this was the morning everything was going to look better in, and it doesn’t.
* Like Zen Buddhists, only bigger begging bowls. (BOS)
Where does a seven-foot barbarian hero go? Dogger thought. Wherever he likes. (BOS)
Of course I don't feel mad, but I wouldn't, would I? (BOS)
‘You can’t carouse organically.’ (BOS)
'Throwing women over your pommel and riding off into the night isn't approved of around here. It's probably an ism,' he added gloomily. (BOS)
... he was a true collector - he didn't worry whether the stuff was actually good or not. It just had to exist. (BOS)
Nothing serious has bits of apple floating in it. (BOS)
… as though they were alive and dead at the same time, like Cliff Richard. (BOS)
I hadn't noticed him before because he was one of these people you wouldn't notice if he was with you in a wardrobe.
He smiled the sort of smile you have to learn and stuck out his hand. Can't remember his face. He had a warm, friendly handshake, the kind where you want to have a wash afterwards. (BOS)
Life can get very complicated for men in overalls who have problems with men in suits. (BOS)
You shouldn’t turn in on yourself. It’s not what being human means. You got to reach out. (BOS)
There’s no slavery as such, except to tradition, but tradition wields a heavy lash. I mean, maybe democracy isn’t perfect, but at least we don’t let ourselves be outvoted by the dead. (BOS)
It’s just like I’ve always said – women have always had a greater stake in technology than have men. We’d still be living in trees, otherwise. Piped water, electric lighting, stoves that you don’t need to shove wood into – I reckon that behind half the great inventors in history were their wives, nagging them into fiding a cleaner way of doing the chores. (BOS)
That’s the thing about time-travel, you’ve got all the time in the world. (BOS)
‘I thought you told me a dimocracy was where people did what they wanted to do,’ she said.
‘It’s a democracy,’ I said. ‘And it’s fine for people to do what they want to do, provided they do what’s right.’ (BOS)
‘… you can’t start with a democracy. You have to work up through stuff like tyranny and monarchy first. That way people are so relieved when they get to democracy that they hang on to it.’ (BOS)
When people talk about their great past they’re usually trying to excuse their mediocre present. (BOS)
… all real patriots can never remember more than one verse of their anthem, and get through the subsequent verses by going ‘ner hner ner’ until they reach an outcrop of words they recognise, which they sing very boldly to give the impression that they really had been singing all the other words as well but had been drowned out by the people around them. (BOS)
No one like a child who pays attention too hard, whose eyes follow your every move, and who listens very carefully to everything you say. It’s like talking to a great big bottomless ear. (BOS)
The traditional enmity between dwarfs and trolls has been explained away by one simple statement: one species is made of rock, the other is made of miners. But in truth the enmity is there because no one can remember when it wasn’t, and so it continues because everything is done in completely justifiable revenge for the revenge that was taken in response to the revenge for the vengeance that was taken earlier, and so on. Humans never do this sort of thing, much. (BOS)
For according to the trollish philosopher Plateau, ‘if you want to understan’ an enemy, you gotta walk a mile in his shoes. Den, if he’s still you enemy, at least you’re a mile away and he’s got no shoes.’ (BOS)
… there is no point in being the official bad person if you play by the rules. (BOS)
Even squirrels deserved their privacy, the dirty little devils. (BOC)
… the smug face of virtue triumphant could almost be as horrible as wickedness revealed. (BOC)
Knowing how bad you could be is a great encouragement to being good. (BOC)
The more you faced the light the brighter is grew, and one day for the brief respite that it brought you’d look over your shoulder. And you’d see how lovely and rich and dark and beguiling your shadow had become … (BOC)
She’d tried being alone with her thoughts once, but had never tried it again. It had been too dull. (BOC)
