He was stocky, running to plump, and one of those people who bustle about being helpful in a mildly annoying way, taking over small jobs that you wouldn’t have minded doing for yourself. (MR)
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... never give a cat a name you would mind shouting out in a strained, worried voice around midnight while banging a tin bowl with a spoon. And stick to something short. (UC)
'So ... we have what the people are interested in, and human interest stories, which is what humans are interested in, and the public interest, which no one is interested in?'
'Except the public, sir,' said William, trying to keep up. 'Which isn't the same as people and humans.' 'I think it's more complicated than that, sir.' (TT) 'Did I say "thank you?"'
'No, you did not.' 'Oh, dear.' 'No, you noticed that you didn't, so zat is okay,' said Otto. (TT) Witches took the view that they helped society in all kinds of ways which couldn't easily be explained but would become obvious if they stopped doing them, and that it was worth six pence and one half-penny not to find out what these were. (TG)
The Librarian thought that practically everything could be improved by the addition of soft fruit, but apart from that he was a kindly soul, always ready with a helping hand and a banana. (SD)
'... Carrot takes an interest. He doesn't even think about it. He makes space in his head for people. He takes an interest, and so people think they're interesting. They feel .... better when he's around.' (J)
Washing-up is a badge of membership anywhere. (Ma)
'I hate it when people are nice to me. It means something bad is going to happen.' (IT)
She was not an unkind woman, despite a lifetime of being gently dried out on the stove of education ... (SM)
It was very unusual for Maurice to feel sympathetic to anyone who wasn't Maurice. In a cat, that is a major character flaw. (AM)
It was just that she had preferred him when he’d been a Fool. There’s something about a man who tinkles gently as he moves. (LL)
‘I hope they get counselling?’
‘We found out about that,’ said Bigmac’s voice. ‘They get a nice cup of tea and told to cheer up because it could be worse.’ ‘That’s all?’ ‘Well … there’s biscuits too.’ (JB) Magrat liked to think she was good with children, and worried that she wasn’t. She didn’t like them very much, and worried about this too. Nanny Ogg seemed to be effortlessly good with children by alternately and randomly giving them either a sweet or a thick ear, while Granny Weatherwax ignored them from most of the time and that seemed to work just as well. Whereas Magrat cared. It didn’t seem fair. (WA)
Twoflower didn’t just look at the world through rose-tinted spectacles, Rincewind knew – he looked at it through a rose-tinted brain, too and heard it through rose-tinted ears. (LF)
‘Do you think there’s anything to eat in this forest?’
‘Yes,’ said the wizard bitterly, ‘us’. (LF) 'What's up with him?’ said Masklin.
Granny Morkie started to roll bandages in a businesslike way. No one needed them, but she believed in having a good supply. Enough for the whole world, apparently. ‘He’s having to think’’ she said. ‘That always worries people.' (Truck) He knew how she felt. It was the way he felt himself, sometimes if he woke in the small hours, at three a.m., a time when the world seemed empty and stripped of comforting illusion. A time when you knew you were a mote, transient and fragile in a vast universe, a candle flame in an empty hall. Luckily the sun always came up, people stirred, and you got on with stuff that distracted you from the reality.
The problem for Roberta Golding was that she was too smart to be distracted. For her, it was three a.m. all the time. (LW) Nelson had an irrational dislike of 'petabytes'', the recognised term for a particular, and particularly large, wodge of data. Anything that sounded like a kitten's gentle nip just didn't have the moxie to do the job asked of it. 'Godzillabytes', on the other hand, shouted to the world that it was dealing with something very, very big ... and possibly dangerous. (LW)
... 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)
And Joshua felt oddly uncomfortable, once more. A slight feeling you get when everything is so right that it might have gone all the way around the universe and come back metamorphosed into wrong. (LE)
‘… kindness lasts a lot longer than love, because my mother always said that kindness was love in disguise.’ (Do)
‘There is no race so wretched that there is not something out there that cares for them …’ (Sn)
Never, ever expect gratitude from those you help. (UA)
'… trying to be nice to students means you end up with courses like comparative fretwork and graduates who think 'thank you' is one word and can look at a sign sayin' 'Human Resources Department' without detecting a whiff of brimstone.' (CCODD)
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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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