The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
There was, for example, the theory that A’Tuin had come from nowhere and would continue at a uniform crawl, or steady gait, into nowhere, for all time. This theory was popular among academics.
An alternative, favoured by those of a religious persuasion, was that A’Tuin was crawling from the Birthplace to the Time of Mating, as were all the stars in the sky which were, obviously, also carried by giant turtles. When they arrived they would briefly and passionately mate, for the first and only time, and from that fiery union new turtles would be born to carry a new pattern of worlds. This was known as the Big Bang hypothesis. (COM)
By now the whole of downtown Morpork was alight, and the richer and worthier citizens of Ankh on the far bank were bravely responding to the situation by feverishly demolishing the bridges. (COM)
...on the disc, the Gods are not so much worshipped as blamed. (COM)
There are said to be some mystic rivers one drop of which can steal a man’s life away. After its turbid passage through the twin cities the Ankh could have been one of them. (COM)
‘… if complete and utter chaos was lightning, then he’d be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet armour and shouting “All gods are bastards’. (COM)
Rincewind opened his mouth to reply but felt the words huddle together in his throat, reluctant to emerge into a world that was rapidly going mad. (COM)
‘I assure you the thought never crossed my mind, lord.’
‘Indeed? Then if I were you I’d sue my face for slander’. (COM)
… what he didn’t like about heroes was that they were usually suicidally gloomy when sober and homicidally insane when drunk. (COM)
The Watch were always careful not to intervene too soon in any brawl where the odds were not stacked heavily in their favour. The job carried a pension, and attracted a cautious, thoughtful kind of man. (COM)
‘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.’ (COM)
It is embarrassing to know that one is a god of a world that only exists because every probability curve must have a far end ... (COM)
Picturesque meant – he decided after careful observation of the scenery that inspired Twoflower to use the word – that the landscape was horribly precipitous. Quaint, when used to describe the occasional village through which they passed, meant fever-ridden and tumbledown.
Twoflower was a tourist, the first ever seen on the discworld. Tourist, Rincewind had decided, meant ‘idiot’. (COM)
…magic had indeed once been wild and lawless, but had been tamed back in the mists of time by the Olden Ones, who had bound it to obey among other things the Law of Conservation of Reality; this demanded that the effort needed to achieve a goal should be the same regardless of the means used. In practical terms this meant that, say, creating the illusion of a glass of wine was relatively easy, since it involved merely the subtle shifting of light patterns. On the other hand, lifting a genuine wineglass a few feet in the air by sheer mental energy required several hours of systematic preparation if the wizard wished to prevent the simple principle of leverage flicking his brain out through his ears. (COM)
[Hrun] spent a great deal of time in similar situations, seeking gold or demons or distressed virgins and relieving them respectively of their owners, their lives, and at least one cause of their distress. (COM)
'What heroes like best is themselves.' (COM)
Magic never dies. It merely fades away. (COM)
Oh, you know how it is with wizards. Half an hour afterwards you could do with another one, the dragon grumbles. (COM)
A rescue attempt had hitherto been so far at the back of his mind that, if some advanced speculations on the nature and shape of the many-dimensioned multiplexity of the universe were correct, it was right at the front ... (COM)
Rincewind looked down at him and grinned slowly. It was a wide, manic and utterly humourless rictus. It was the sort of grin that is normally accompanied by small riverside birds wandering in and out, picking scraps out of the teeth. (COM)
‘You’re a defeatist.’
‘Defeatist! That’s because I’m going to be defeated.’
‘You’re your own worst enemy, Rincewind,’ said the sword.
Rincewind looked up at the grinning men.
‘Bet?’ he said wearily. (COM)
'Would you like to die now, or surrender first?' (COM)
‘We fight to the death,’ he said. ‘Yours.’ (COM)
Hrun shrugged. ‘Sure,’ he said, ‘the only reason for walking into the jaws of Death is so’s you can steal His gold teeth.’ (COM)
... the dimension of the imagination is much more complex than those of space and time, which are very junior dimensions indeed ... (COM)
Some pirates achieved immortality by great deeds of cruelty or derring-do. Some achieved immortality by amassing great wealth. But the captain had long ago decided that he would, on the whole, prefer to achieve immortality by not dying. (COM)
‘You mean they hate water?’ said Twoflower.
‘No, that wouldn’t work,’ said Rincewind. ‘Hate is an attracting force, just like love. They really loathe it, the very idea of it revolts them.’ (COM)
'We know all about you, Rincewind the magician. You are a man of great cunning and artifice. You laugh in the face of Death. Your affected air of craven cowardice does not fool me.'
It fooled Rincewind. (COM)
‘But what do you want to sacrifice us for?’ asked Twoflower. ‘You hardly know us!’
‘That’s rather the point isn’t it? It’s not very good manners to sacrifice a friend.’ (COM)
An alternative, favoured by those of a religious persuasion, was that A’Tuin was crawling from the Birthplace to the Time of Mating, as were all the stars in the sky which were, obviously, also carried by giant turtles. When they arrived they would briefly and passionately mate, for the first and only time, and from that fiery union new turtles would be born to carry a new pattern of worlds. This was known as the Big Bang hypothesis. (COM)
By now the whole of downtown Morpork was alight, and the richer and worthier citizens of Ankh on the far bank were bravely responding to the situation by feverishly demolishing the bridges. (COM)
...on the disc, the Gods are not so much worshipped as blamed. (COM)
There are said to be some mystic rivers one drop of which can steal a man’s life away. After its turbid passage through the twin cities the Ankh could have been one of them. (COM)
‘… if complete and utter chaos was lightning, then he’d be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet armour and shouting “All gods are bastards’. (COM)
Rincewind opened his mouth to reply but felt the words huddle together in his throat, reluctant to emerge into a world that was rapidly going mad. (COM)
‘I assure you the thought never crossed my mind, lord.’
‘Indeed? Then if I were you I’d sue my face for slander’. (COM)
… what he didn’t like about heroes was that they were usually suicidally gloomy when sober and homicidally insane when drunk. (COM)
The Watch were always careful not to intervene too soon in any brawl where the odds were not stacked heavily in their favour. The job carried a pension, and attracted a cautious, thoughtful kind of man. (COM)
‘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.’ (COM)
It is embarrassing to know that one is a god of a world that only exists because every probability curve must have a far end ... (COM)
Picturesque meant – he decided after careful observation of the scenery that inspired Twoflower to use the word – that the landscape was horribly precipitous. Quaint, when used to describe the occasional village through which they passed, meant fever-ridden and tumbledown.
Twoflower was a tourist, the first ever seen on the discworld. Tourist, Rincewind had decided, meant ‘idiot’. (COM)
…magic had indeed once been wild and lawless, but had been tamed back in the mists of time by the Olden Ones, who had bound it to obey among other things the Law of Conservation of Reality; this demanded that the effort needed to achieve a goal should be the same regardless of the means used. In practical terms this meant that, say, creating the illusion of a glass of wine was relatively easy, since it involved merely the subtle shifting of light patterns. On the other hand, lifting a genuine wineglass a few feet in the air by sheer mental energy required several hours of systematic preparation if the wizard wished to prevent the simple principle of leverage flicking his brain out through his ears. (COM)
[Hrun] spent a great deal of time in similar situations, seeking gold or demons or distressed virgins and relieving them respectively of their owners, their lives, and at least one cause of their distress. (COM)
'What heroes like best is themselves.' (COM)
Magic never dies. It merely fades away. (COM)
Oh, you know how it is with wizards. Half an hour afterwards you could do with another one, the dragon grumbles. (COM)
A rescue attempt had hitherto been so far at the back of his mind that, if some advanced speculations on the nature and shape of the many-dimensioned multiplexity of the universe were correct, it was right at the front ... (COM)
Rincewind looked down at him and grinned slowly. It was a wide, manic and utterly humourless rictus. It was the sort of grin that is normally accompanied by small riverside birds wandering in and out, picking scraps out of the teeth. (COM)
‘You’re a defeatist.’
‘Defeatist! That’s because I’m going to be defeated.’
‘You’re your own worst enemy, Rincewind,’ said the sword.
Rincewind looked up at the grinning men.
‘Bet?’ he said wearily. (COM)
'Would you like to die now, or surrender first?' (COM)
‘We fight to the death,’ he said. ‘Yours.’ (COM)
Hrun shrugged. ‘Sure,’ he said, ‘the only reason for walking into the jaws of Death is so’s you can steal His gold teeth.’ (COM)
... the dimension of the imagination is much more complex than those of space and time, which are very junior dimensions indeed ... (COM)
Some pirates achieved immortality by great deeds of cruelty or derring-do. Some achieved immortality by amassing great wealth. But the captain had long ago decided that he would, on the whole, prefer to achieve immortality by not dying. (COM)
‘You mean they hate water?’ said Twoflower.
‘No, that wouldn’t work,’ said Rincewind. ‘Hate is an attracting force, just like love. They really loathe it, the very idea of it revolts them.’ (COM)
'We know all about you, Rincewind the magician. You are a man of great cunning and artifice. You laugh in the face of Death. Your affected air of craven cowardice does not fool me.'
It fooled Rincewind. (COM)
‘But what do you want to sacrifice us for?’ asked Twoflower. ‘You hardly know us!’
‘That’s rather the point isn’t it? It’s not very good manners to sacrifice a friend.’ (COM)
