'There’s no’ a lot o’ laughs in the underworld. This one used tae be called Limbo, ye ken, cuz the door was verrae low.' (W)
|
Most gods were people-shaped; people don’t have much imagination, on the whole. Even Offler the Crocodile God was only crocodile-headed. Ask people to imagine an animal god and they will, basically, come up with the idea of someone in a really bad mask. Men have been much better at inventing demons, which is why there are so many. (LH)
Hell, it has been suggested, is other people.
This has always come as a bit of a surprise to many demons, who had always thought that hell was sticking sharp things into people and pushing them into lakes of blood and so on. (E) Demons have existed on the Discworld for at least as long as the gods, who in many ways they closely resemble. The difference is basically the same as that between terrorists and freedom fighters. (E)
... any wizard bright enough to survive for five minutes was also bright enough to realise that if there was any power in demonology, then it lay with the demons. Using it for your own purposes would be like trying to beat mice to death with a rattlesnake. (E)
There was a rumour that the sword in the stick had been made with the iron taken from the blood of a thousand men. It seemed a waste, thought Moist, when for a bit of extra work you could get enough to make a ploughshare. (MM)
'I love democracy. I could listen to it all day.' (MM)
'Listen, Peaches, trickery is what humans are all about,’ said the voice of Maurice. ‘They’re so keen on tricking one another all the time that they elect governments to do it for them.' (AM)
'In return, however,’ said the Patrician, ‘I must ask you not to upset Commander Vimes.’ He gave a little cough. ‘More than necessary.’
‘I’m sure we can pull together, sir.’ ‘Oh, I do hope not, I really do hope not. Pulling together is the aim of despotism and tyranny. Free men pull in all kinds of directions.’ He smiled. ‘It’s the only way to make progress.' (TT) 'The right to free speech is an old Ankh-Morpork tradition.’
‘Good heavens, is it?’ ‘Yes, my lord.’ ‘How did that one survive?' (TT) He knew about concerned citizens. Wherever they were, they all spoke the same private language, where ‘traditional values’ meant ‘hang someone’. (TT)
'I'm sure no one could call me a despot, your reverence,’ said Lord Vetinari severely.
Hughnon Ridcully made a misjudged attempted to lighten the mood. ‘Not twice at any rate, ahahah.' (TT) Vimes had once discussed the Ephebian idea of ‘democracy’ with Carrot and had been rather interested in the idea that everyone* had a vote until he found out that while he, Vimes, would have a vote, there was no way in the rules that
anyone could prevent Nobby Nobbs from having one as well. Vimes could see the flaw there straight away. *Apart from the women, children, slaves, idiots and people who weren’t really our kind of people (FE) 'You are in favour of the common people?’ said Dragon mildly.
‘The common people?’ said Vimes. ‘They’re nothing special. They’re no different from the rich and powerful except they’ve got no money or power. But the law should be there to balance things up a bit.' (FC) He’d tried to introduce Ephebian democracy to Lancre, giving the vote to everyone, or at least everyone “who be of good report and who be male and hath forty years and owneth a hosue worth more than three and a half goats a year,” because there’s no sense in being stupid about things and giving the vote to people who were poor or criminal or insane or female, who’d only use it irresponsibly. (LL)
'I like the idea of democracy. You have to have someone everyone distrusts,’said Brutha. ‘That way, everyone’s happy.' (SG)
The Ephebians believed that every man should have the vote.*
*Provided that he wasn’t poor, foreign nor disqualified by reason of being mad, frivolous or a woman. (SG) 'You can’t go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world. Otherwise it’s just a cage.' (WA)
Ankh-Morpork had dallied with many forms of government and had ended up with that form of democracy known as One Man, One Vote. The Patrician was the Man; he had the Vote. (M)
When you have been a possession, then you really understand what freedom means, in all its magnificent terror. (MM)
'No sane mortal is truly free, because true freedom is so terrible that only the mad or the divine can face it with open eyes.' (GP)
'Freedom may be mankind’s natural state, but so is sitting in a tree eating your dinner while it is still wriggling.' (GP)
'We look to…the edges,’ said Mistress Weatherwax. ‘There’s a lot of edges, more than people know. Between life and death, this world and the next, night and day, right and wrong…an’ they need watchin’. We watch ‘em, we guard the sum of things. And we never ask for any reward. That’s important.' (WFM)
An edge witch is one who makes her living on the edges, in that moment when the boundary conditions apply – between life and death, light and dark, good and evil and, most dangerously of all, today and tomorrow. (TOT)
CHOOSE, he said. YOU ARE GOOD AT CHOOSING, I BELIEVE.
‘Is there any advice you could be givin’ me?’ said Granny. CHOOSE RIGHT. (CJ) |
Author
The world has lost Sir Terry, and it's so much the poorer for that. Vale Sir Terry. Categories
All
Archives
March 2023
|
RSS Feed
