Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett
The Nac Mac Feegle are the most dangerous of the fairy races, particularly when drunk. They love drinking, fighting and stealing, and will in fact steal anything that is not nailed down. If it is nailed down, they will steal the nails as well. (HFS)
Witches were a bit like cats. They didn’t much like one another’s company, but they did like to know where all the other witches were, just in case they needed them. (HFS)
Over the last year or so Tiffany’s mother had been quite surprised, and a little worried, at Tiffany’s sudden thirst for education, which people in the village thought was a good thing in moderation but if taken unwisely could lead to restlessness. (HFS)
It’s quite easy to accidentally overhear people talking downstairs if you hold an upturned glass to the floorboards and accidentally put your ear to it. (HFS)
... the Nac Mac Feegle should only be called fairies to their face if you were looking for a fight. (HFS)
... if there's one thing a Feegle likes more than a party, it's a bigger party, and if there's anything better than a bigger party, it's a bigger party with someone else paying for the drink. (HFS)
... she was a witch and a teacher and that's a terrible combination. They want things to be right. They like things to be correct. (HFS)
It was difficult to talk to someone who paid attention all the time. It put you off. (HFS)
He'd mastered the first two rules of writing, as he understood them.
1) Steal some paper.
2) Steal a pencil.
Unfortunately there was more to it than that. (HFS)
‘Ach, it’s a terrible thing for a man when his wumman gangs up on him wi’ a toad,’ said Rob, shaking his head. (HFS)
... if they couldn't bend their thinking around the world, they bent the world around their thinking. (HFS)
…upon marriage men get a whole set of extra senses bolted into their brain, and one is there to tell a man that he’s suddenly neck deep in real trouble. (HFS)
Every world is full of places like Twoshirts. They are places to come from, not go to. (HFS)
Bits of Miss Tick’s teachings floated through her head: Always face what you fear. Have enough money, never too much, and some string. Even if it’s not your fault it’s your responsibility. Witches deal with things. Never stand between two mirrors. Never cackle. Do what you must do. Never lie, but you don’t always have to be honest. Never wish. Especially don’t wish upon a star, which is astronomically stupid. Open you eyes, and then open your eyes again. (HFS)
It turned out that when Miss Level had asked Tiffany if she was scared of heights, it had been the wrong question. Tiffany was not afraid of heights at all. She could walk past tall trees without batting an eyelid. Looking up at huge towering mountains didn’t bother her a bit.
What she was afraid of, although she hadn’t realized it up until this point, was depths. She was afraid of dropping such a long way out of the sky that she’d have time to run out of breath screaming before hitting the rocks so hard that she’d turn to a sort of jelly and all her bones would break into dust. She was, in fact, afraid of the ground. (HFS)
First Thoughts are the everyday thoughts. Everyone has those. Second Thoughts are the thoughts you think about the way you think. People who enjoy thinking have those. Third Thoughts are thoughts that watch the world and think all by themselves. They’re rare, and often troublesome. Listening to them is part of witchcraft. (HFS)
‘I am no’ deid! I’m trying to have a moment o’ existential dreed here, right? Crivens, it’s a puir lookout if a man cannae feel the chilly winds o’ Fate lashing aroound his nethers wi’out folks telling him he’s deid, eh?’ (HFS)
‘It’s a bad case o’ the thinkin’ he’s caught, missus. When a man starts messin’ wi’ the readin’ and the writin’ then he’ll come doon with a dose o’ the thinkin’ soon enough. I’ll fetch some o’ the lads and we’ll hold his heid under water until he stops doin’ it, ‘tis the only cure. It can kill a man, the thinkin’. (HFS)
A Feegle liked to face enormous odds all by himself, because it meant you didn’t have to look where you were hitting. (HFS)
‘Mr Weavall is very short-sighted, but he sees better in the past.’ (HFS)
‘It shouldn’t be like this.’
‘There isn’t a way things should be. There’s just what happens, and what we do.’ (HFS)
‘Knowing things is magical, if other people don’t know them.’ (HFS)
If there's one thing a Feegle likes, it's knowing that wherever you strike you're going to hit an enemy. (HFS)
‘What’s your name, pictsie?’
‘Awf’ly Wee Billy Bigchin MacFeegle, mistress.’
‘You’re very small, aren’t you?’
‘Only for my height, mistress.’ (HFS)
‘Mrs Earwig tells her girls it’s about cosmic balances and stars and circles and colours and wands and…and toys, nothing but toys!’ She sniffed. ‘Oh, I daresay they’re all very well as decoration, somethin’ for show, but the start and finish, the start and finish, is helpin’ people when life is on the edge. Even people you don’t like. Stars is easy, people is hard.’ (HFS)
‘Learnin’ how not to do things is as hard as learning how to do them. Harder, maybe. There’d be a sight more frogs in this world if I didn’t know how not to turn people into them.’ (HFS)
It was dreadful when your own thoughts tried to gang up on you. (HFS)
‘AAaargwannawannaaaagongongonaargggaaaaBLOON!’ which is the traditional sound of a very small child learning that with balloons, as with life itself, it is important to know when not to let go of the string. The whole point of balloons is to teach small children this. (HFS)
'Everything's got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.' (HFS)
'Things aren't important. People are.' (HFS)
'If you don't know when to be a human being, you don't know when to be a witch.' (HFS)
... it must be hard, being the best. You're not allowed to stop. You can only be beaten, and you're too proud ever to lose. Pride! You've turned it into a terrible strength, but it eats away at you. (HFS)
It’s always surprising to be reminded that while you’re watching and thinking about people all knowing and superior, they’re watching and thinking about you, right back at you. (HFS)
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 colours. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. (HFS)
Joy is to fun what the deep sea is to a puddle. It’s a feeling inside that can hardly be contained. (HFS)
Witches were a bit like cats. They didn’t much like one another’s company, but they did like to know where all the other witches were, just in case they needed them. (HFS)
Over the last year or so Tiffany’s mother had been quite surprised, and a little worried, at Tiffany’s sudden thirst for education, which people in the village thought was a good thing in moderation but if taken unwisely could lead to restlessness. (HFS)
It’s quite easy to accidentally overhear people talking downstairs if you hold an upturned glass to the floorboards and accidentally put your ear to it. (HFS)
... the Nac Mac Feegle should only be called fairies to their face if you were looking for a fight. (HFS)
... if there's one thing a Feegle likes more than a party, it's a bigger party, and if there's anything better than a bigger party, it's a bigger party with someone else paying for the drink. (HFS)
... she was a witch and a teacher and that's a terrible combination. They want things to be right. They like things to be correct. (HFS)
It was difficult to talk to someone who paid attention all the time. It put you off. (HFS)
He'd mastered the first two rules of writing, as he understood them.
1) Steal some paper.
2) Steal a pencil.
Unfortunately there was more to it than that. (HFS)
‘Ach, it’s a terrible thing for a man when his wumman gangs up on him wi’ a toad,’ said Rob, shaking his head. (HFS)
... if they couldn't bend their thinking around the world, they bent the world around their thinking. (HFS)
…upon marriage men get a whole set of extra senses bolted into their brain, and one is there to tell a man that he’s suddenly neck deep in real trouble. (HFS)
Every world is full of places like Twoshirts. They are places to come from, not go to. (HFS)
Bits of Miss Tick’s teachings floated through her head: Always face what you fear. Have enough money, never too much, and some string. Even if it’s not your fault it’s your responsibility. Witches deal with things. Never stand between two mirrors. Never cackle. Do what you must do. Never lie, but you don’t always have to be honest. Never wish. Especially don’t wish upon a star, which is astronomically stupid. Open you eyes, and then open your eyes again. (HFS)
It turned out that when Miss Level had asked Tiffany if she was scared of heights, it had been the wrong question. Tiffany was not afraid of heights at all. She could walk past tall trees without batting an eyelid. Looking up at huge towering mountains didn’t bother her a bit.
What she was afraid of, although she hadn’t realized it up until this point, was depths. She was afraid of dropping such a long way out of the sky that she’d have time to run out of breath screaming before hitting the rocks so hard that she’d turn to a sort of jelly and all her bones would break into dust. She was, in fact, afraid of the ground. (HFS)
First Thoughts are the everyday thoughts. Everyone has those. Second Thoughts are the thoughts you think about the way you think. People who enjoy thinking have those. Third Thoughts are thoughts that watch the world and think all by themselves. They’re rare, and often troublesome. Listening to them is part of witchcraft. (HFS)
‘I am no’ deid! I’m trying to have a moment o’ existential dreed here, right? Crivens, it’s a puir lookout if a man cannae feel the chilly winds o’ Fate lashing aroound his nethers wi’out folks telling him he’s deid, eh?’ (HFS)
‘It’s a bad case o’ the thinkin’ he’s caught, missus. When a man starts messin’ wi’ the readin’ and the writin’ then he’ll come doon with a dose o’ the thinkin’ soon enough. I’ll fetch some o’ the lads and we’ll hold his heid under water until he stops doin’ it, ‘tis the only cure. It can kill a man, the thinkin’. (HFS)
A Feegle liked to face enormous odds all by himself, because it meant you didn’t have to look where you were hitting. (HFS)
‘Mr Weavall is very short-sighted, but he sees better in the past.’ (HFS)
‘It shouldn’t be like this.’
‘There isn’t a way things should be. There’s just what happens, and what we do.’ (HFS)
‘Knowing things is magical, if other people don’t know them.’ (HFS)
If there's one thing a Feegle likes, it's knowing that wherever you strike you're going to hit an enemy. (HFS)
‘What’s your name, pictsie?’
‘Awf’ly Wee Billy Bigchin MacFeegle, mistress.’
‘You’re very small, aren’t you?’
‘Only for my height, mistress.’ (HFS)
‘Mrs Earwig tells her girls it’s about cosmic balances and stars and circles and colours and wands and…and toys, nothing but toys!’ She sniffed. ‘Oh, I daresay they’re all very well as decoration, somethin’ for show, but the start and finish, the start and finish, is helpin’ people when life is on the edge. Even people you don’t like. Stars is easy, people is hard.’ (HFS)
‘Learnin’ how not to do things is as hard as learning how to do them. Harder, maybe. There’d be a sight more frogs in this world if I didn’t know how not to turn people into them.’ (HFS)
It was dreadful when your own thoughts tried to gang up on you. (HFS)
‘AAaargwannawannaaaagongongonaargggaaaaBLOON!’ which is the traditional sound of a very small child learning that with balloons, as with life itself, it is important to know when not to let go of the string. The whole point of balloons is to teach small children this. (HFS)
'Everything's got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.' (HFS)
'Things aren't important. People are.' (HFS)
'If you don't know when to be a human being, you don't know when to be a witch.' (HFS)
... it must be hard, being the best. You're not allowed to stop. You can only be beaten, and you're too proud ever to lose. Pride! You've turned it into a terrible strength, but it eats away at you. (HFS)
It’s always surprising to be reminded that while you’re watching and thinking about people all knowing and superior, they’re watching and thinking about you, right back at you. (HFS)
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 colours. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. (HFS)
Joy is to fun what the deep sea is to a puddle. It’s a feeling inside that can hardly be contained. (HFS)
