‘Aye,’ said Rob, grinning, ‘it must be another coincidence.’ (ISWM)
‘There have been a lot of those coincidences lately,’ said Tiffany.
‘Aye,’ said Rob, grinning, ‘it must be another coincidence.’ (ISWM)
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‘We must take advantage of the “tide of fortune”’.
‘I know about tides, sir. They leave little fish gaspin’.’ (MR) ‘... the universe has no time for life. By rights it shouldn’t exist. We don’t realize the odds.’ (DSS)
IN ORDER TO HAVE A CHANGE OF FORTUNE AT THE LAST MINUTE YOU HAVE TO TAKE YOUR FORTUNE TO THE LAST MINUTE ... (TOT)
When a shark is coming at you, you are already dead, old Nawi had said, and since you were already dead, then anything was worth trying ... (N)
Fate always wins. Most of the gods throw dice but Fate plays chess, and you don't find out until it's too late that he's been using two queens all along. (IT)
... Ridcully believed that everything had come into being by chance or, in the particular case of the Dean, out of spite. (SM)
The problem with Destiny, of course, is that she is often not careful where she puts her finger. (MA)
'You can't say "if this didn't happen then that would have happened" because you don't know everything that might have happened. You might think something'd be good, but for all you know it could have turned out horrible.' (LL)
… you think you’re going to have a normal day and suddenly you’re in charge of a trolley with one squeaky wheel and an insane cat. (JB)
‘You know what the greatest tragedy in the whole world is?’ said Ginger, not paying him the least attention. ‘It’s all the people who never find out what they really want to do or what it is they’re really good at. It’s all the sons who become blacksmiths because their fathers were blacksmiths. It’s all the people who could be really fantastic flute players who grow old and die without ever seeing a musical instrument, so they become ploughmen instead. It’s all the people with talents who never even find out. Maybe they are never even born in a time when it’s even possible to find out.’
She took a deep breath. ‘It’s all the people who never get to know what it is they can really be. It’s all the wasted chances.’ (MP) “Truly, the world is the mollusc of your choice …” (P)
Destiny was funny stuff, he knew. You couldn’t trust it. Often you couldn’t even see it. Just when you knew you had it cornered it turned out to be something else – coincidence, maybe, or providence. You barred the door against it, and it was standing behind you. Then just when you thought you had it nailed down it walked away with the hammer. (WS)
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)
‘If this doesn’t win, I’ll eat my hat,’ said Sir Henry, who was wearing a straw hat just in case. (DCC)
'The only way to get something to turn up when you need it is to need it to turn up.' (GP)
‘This is not the right time. You are ill-prepared.’
Masklin clenched his fists. ‘I’ll never be well-prepared! I was born in a hole, Thing! A muddy hole in the ground! How can I ever be well-prepared for anything? That’s what being alive is, Thing! It’s being badly prepared for everything! Because you only get one chance, Thing! You only get one chance and then you die and they don’t let you go round again after you’ve got the hang of it!' (Dig) Troll gambling is even simpler than Australian gambling. One of the most popular games is One Up, which consists of throwing a coin in the air and betting on whether it will come down again. (SM)
'... a student of probability soon realizes that by its nature the billion-to-one chance crops up nine times out of ten, and that the greatest odds boils down to a double-sided statement: it will happen, or it will not.' (DSS)
… luck came to those who left a space for it – (MM)
'They say fortune favours the brave, but I say I’ve seen too many brave men walkin’ into battles they never walked out of.' (LH)
'How did you work that out so exactly, Mr Stibbons?’
‘I, er…’ Ponder felt the eyes of the wizards on him. ‘I-’ He stopped. ‘It was a lucky guess, sir.’ The wizards relaxed. They were extremely uneasy with cleverness, but lucky guessing was what being a wizard was all about. ‘Well done, that man,’ said Ridcully, nodding. ‘Wipe your forehead, Mr Stibbons, you’ve got away with it again.' (LC) No-one likes being told it’s their lucky day. That sort of thing does not bode well. When someone tells you it’s your lucky day, something bad is about to happen. (J)
It is the fate of all banisters worth sliding down that there is something nasty waiting at the far end. (Ma)
... there are some people who are destined to be carried to comfortable couches and some people whose only fate is fetching a bowl of cold water. (Ma)
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The world has lost Sir Terry, and it's so much the poorer for that. Vale Sir Terry. Categories
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