Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett
It is hard to understand nothing, but the multiverse is full of it. (RS)
Once you had to deal with a ton of overheated octopus, you never forgot it. (RS)
Magnus was an easy-going dwarf and did the wrong thing, which was to be logical. (RS)
Moist von Lipwig had done some heavy work once and couldn't see any future in it, but he could look at it for hours ... (RS)
... the builder speculates about how far away he can be and with how much money, before the buyer finds that the footings have, in fact, no feet, the septic tank is one foot deep with a tendency to flow backwards, and the bricks owe a lot to that most organic and venerable of all building materials, cow shit. The whole business traditionally begins with a plot, in every sense of the word. (RS)
'Any three dwarfs having a sensible conversation will always end up having four points of view'. (RS)
... one wrong word from him would send shock-waves around the cavern and the result, whatever it was, would be his fault. Such is the fate of those who work only for the propagation of peace over warfare .... (RS)
... he ventured to wonder if they ever thought back to when things were just old-fangled or not fangled at all as against the modern day when fangled had reached its apogee. Fangling was indeed, he thought, here to stay. (RS)
... he was allergic to the concept of two seven o'clocks in one day. (RS)
'Everyone is just people'. (RS)
Henry and All Jolson were in complete agreement about what made a good meal - namely, calories .... (RS)
' ... a life without danger is a life not worth living ...' (RS)
Moist put on his meek face as only husbands and puppies can do ... (RS)
'... it's hard to make things safe until you know they're dangerous.' (RS)
'I am a liar for the purpose of amusement, publicity, trivial oneupmanship, personal profit and the gaiety of nations, but I'm not lying to you now'. (RS)
... the people of Quirm called the people of Ankh-Morpork sphincters, mostly for fun. Mostly. (RS)
'... bandits and governments 'ave so much in common that they might be interchangeable anywhere in the world ...' (RS)
'It's a harebrained idea, of course, otherwise you wouldn't have had it, would you?' (RS)
'Tak does not require that you think of him, but he does require that you think ...' (RS)
"Two dwarfs is an argument, three dwarfs is a war." (RS)
Colon and Nobby had lived a long time in a dangerous occupation and the knew how not to be dead. To wit, by arriving when the bad guys had got away. (RS)
There is something vaguely worrying about the word 'reckon' that leaves the ear, for many hard to understand reasons, wishing it was something else a little more certain and a little less frightening. (RS)
And the trouble with madness was that the mad didn't know they were mad. (RS)
Slake was one of those places, Moist thought, that you put on the map because it was embarrassing to have a map with holes in it. (RS)
'I find it amazing and, of course, annoying but so far he has always succeeded, which is why, therefore, all of his extremities are in their rightful place.' (RS)
Moist forced his face to go so deadpan that it might have actually been dead. (RS)
She just looked the look of a wife who was putting up with her husband's funny little ways for which he would suffer in the boudoir later. (RS)
... if you got the customer laughing then you had their money in your pocket. (RS)
That was what technology was doing. It was your slave but, in a sense, it might be the other way round. (RS)
'When you've had hatred on your tongue for such a long time, you don't know how to spit it out'. (RS)
'... although it's vexing to remember it, I am the King of my enemies as well as my friends. There's a certain noblesse oblige, see. It's a bad king who kills his subjects. I would rather see them humiliated than dead.' (RS)
There were spices from Klatch, materials from the Counterweight Continent which had arrived by slow barge, other mysterious delicacies, and unfortunately many ways to become very happy in a short space of time and stone dead shortly afterwards. (RS)
... trying to fight while a busy goblin was in your underwear was very bad for the concentration. (RS)
That was the trouble with royalty. However decent they were, and understanding, they were also likely to think that such things as security arrangements were for other people. (RS)
And then the King was running towards the flames, adopting the traditional dwarf strategy of running at the enemy with as much weaponry as you could swing. (RS).
'... we are not little folk. We are big on the inside.' (RS)
'I'm good at putting rumours, suspicions and instinct together and getting the right result, because I'm a scoundrel.' (RS)
The Queen appeared as innocent as one of those mountains which year after year do nothing very much but smoke a little, and then one day end up causing a whole civilization to become an art installation. (RS)
'If you take enough precautions, you never need to take precautions.' (RS)
'Why, Mister Lipwig? You of all people ask me why? The man who danced on the train roof, the man who actually looks for trouble if it appears to be the kind of trouble which is associated with the term derring-do? Though in your case a few more derring-dont's might be a good idea. Sometimes, Mister Lipwig, the young you that you lost many years ago comes back and taps you on the shoulder and says, "This is the moment when civilization does not matter, when rules no longer hold sway. You have given the world all you can give and now it's the time that is just for you, the chance to go for broke in the last hurrah. Hurrah!" (RS)
'The world is changing and it needs its shepherds and sometimes its butchers.' (RS)
It is hard to understand nothing, but the multiverse is full of it. (RS)
Once you had to deal with a ton of overheated octopus, you never forgot it. (RS)
Magnus was an easy-going dwarf and did the wrong thing, which was to be logical. (RS)
Moist von Lipwig had done some heavy work once and couldn't see any future in it, but he could look at it for hours ... (RS)
... the builder speculates about how far away he can be and with how much money, before the buyer finds that the footings have, in fact, no feet, the septic tank is one foot deep with a tendency to flow backwards, and the bricks owe a lot to that most organic and venerable of all building materials, cow shit. The whole business traditionally begins with a plot, in every sense of the word. (RS)
'Any three dwarfs having a sensible conversation will always end up having four points of view'. (RS)
... one wrong word from him would send shock-waves around the cavern and the result, whatever it was, would be his fault. Such is the fate of those who work only for the propagation of peace over warfare .... (RS)
... he ventured to wonder if they ever thought back to when things were just old-fangled or not fangled at all as against the modern day when fangled had reached its apogee. Fangling was indeed, he thought, here to stay. (RS)
... he was allergic to the concept of two seven o'clocks in one day. (RS)
'Everyone is just people'. (RS)
Henry and All Jolson were in complete agreement about what made a good meal - namely, calories .... (RS)
' ... a life without danger is a life not worth living ...' (RS)
Moist put on his meek face as only husbands and puppies can do ... (RS)
'... it's hard to make things safe until you know they're dangerous.' (RS)
'I am a liar for the purpose of amusement, publicity, trivial oneupmanship, personal profit and the gaiety of nations, but I'm not lying to you now'. (RS)
... the people of Quirm called the people of Ankh-Morpork sphincters, mostly for fun. Mostly. (RS)
'... bandits and governments 'ave so much in common that they might be interchangeable anywhere in the world ...' (RS)
'It's a harebrained idea, of course, otherwise you wouldn't have had it, would you?' (RS)
'Tak does not require that you think of him, but he does require that you think ...' (RS)
"Two dwarfs is an argument, three dwarfs is a war." (RS)
Colon and Nobby had lived a long time in a dangerous occupation and the knew how not to be dead. To wit, by arriving when the bad guys had got away. (RS)
There is something vaguely worrying about the word 'reckon' that leaves the ear, for many hard to understand reasons, wishing it was something else a little more certain and a little less frightening. (RS)
And the trouble with madness was that the mad didn't know they were mad. (RS)
Slake was one of those places, Moist thought, that you put on the map because it was embarrassing to have a map with holes in it. (RS)
'I find it amazing and, of course, annoying but so far he has always succeeded, which is why, therefore, all of his extremities are in their rightful place.' (RS)
Moist forced his face to go so deadpan that it might have actually been dead. (RS)
She just looked the look of a wife who was putting up with her husband's funny little ways for which he would suffer in the boudoir later. (RS)
... if you got the customer laughing then you had their money in your pocket. (RS)
That was what technology was doing. It was your slave but, in a sense, it might be the other way round. (RS)
'When you've had hatred on your tongue for such a long time, you don't know how to spit it out'. (RS)
'... although it's vexing to remember it, I am the King of my enemies as well as my friends. There's a certain noblesse oblige, see. It's a bad king who kills his subjects. I would rather see them humiliated than dead.' (RS)
There were spices from Klatch, materials from the Counterweight Continent which had arrived by slow barge, other mysterious delicacies, and unfortunately many ways to become very happy in a short space of time and stone dead shortly afterwards. (RS)
... trying to fight while a busy goblin was in your underwear was very bad for the concentration. (RS)
That was the trouble with royalty. However decent they were, and understanding, they were also likely to think that such things as security arrangements were for other people. (RS)
And then the King was running towards the flames, adopting the traditional dwarf strategy of running at the enemy with as much weaponry as you could swing. (RS).
'... we are not little folk. We are big on the inside.' (RS)
'I'm good at putting rumours, suspicions and instinct together and getting the right result, because I'm a scoundrel.' (RS)
The Queen appeared as innocent as one of those mountains which year after year do nothing very much but smoke a little, and then one day end up causing a whole civilization to become an art installation. (RS)
'If you take enough precautions, you never need to take precautions.' (RS)
'Why, Mister Lipwig? You of all people ask me why? The man who danced on the train roof, the man who actually looks for trouble if it appears to be the kind of trouble which is associated with the term derring-do? Though in your case a few more derring-dont's might be a good idea. Sometimes, Mister Lipwig, the young you that you lost many years ago comes back and taps you on the shoulder and says, "This is the moment when civilization does not matter, when rules no longer hold sway. You have given the world all you can give and now it's the time that is just for you, the chance to go for broke in the last hurrah. Hurrah!" (RS)
'The world is changing and it needs its shepherds and sometimes its butchers.' (RS)
