… it’s amazing what you can do with a kind word, provided you’ve also got a big stick. (JD)
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An ancient proverb summed it up: when a wizard is tired of looking for broken glass in his dinner, it
ran, he is tired of life. (LF) Nowhere outside a trades union conference fraternal benefit night can so much mutual distrust and suspicion be found as among a gathering of senior enchanters. (LF)
… you didn’t argue with a man with an axe, no matter how wise he seemed. (JD)
‘Nobody can tell wizards what to do – except of course other wizards! And even then they will argue and find fault, hurrah!’ (JD)
Unfortunately, like many people who are instinctively bad at something, the Archchancellor prided himself on how good at it he was. Ridcully was to management what King Herrod was to the Bethlehem Playgroup Association. His mental approach to it could be visualized as a sort of business flowchart with, at the top, a circle entitled ‘Me, who does the telling’ and, connected below it by a line, a large circle entitled ‘Everyone else.’
Until now this had worked quite well, because, although Ridcully was an impossible manager, the University was impossible to manage and so everything worked seamlessly. (LC) ‘… you can’t start with a democracy. You have to work up through stuff like tyranny and monarchy first. That way people are so relieved when they get to democracy that they hang on to it.’ (BOS)
Where does a seven-foot barbarian hero go? Dogger thought. Wherever he likes. (BOS)
… a crowbar is a universal pass key. (Sn)
‘… it’s quite easy for people to be jolly decent when they can afford to hire thoroughly un-decent people …’ (Sn)
… you didn't need to grind the faces of the poor if you taught them to do their own grinding. (ISWM)
Witches knew that mysterious omens were around all the time. The world was always nearly drowning in mysterious omens. You just had to pick the one that was convenient. (ISWM)
'The way to retain power I have always thought, is to ensure the absolute unthinkability of oneself not being there.' (UA)
'No civil police force could hold out against an irate and resolute population. The trick is not to let them realize that.' (UA)
'We play and are played and the best we can hope for is to do it with style.' (UA)
… a wizard could trust you because of the hellish future he could unleash on you if his trust was betrayed. (UA)
'Now, I am concluding this meeting, although what it has in fact concluded I shall decide later.' (UA)
She was, of course, beautiful. You seldom saw a goddess portrayed as ugly. This probably had something to do with their ability to strike people down instantly. (UA)
'As a wizard I must tell you that words have power'.
'As a politician I must tell you I already know'. (UA) They had learned over the years that the top was not a happy or safe place to be. One rung down, that was the place for a sensible man. You advised the king, you had a lot of power, in a quiet kind of way, and you didn't get murdered anything like as often. (N)
He believed in rational thinking and scientific inquiry, which was why he never won an argument with his mother, who believed in people doing what she told them, and believed it with a rock-hard certainty which dismissed all opposition. (N)
'Words are important. And when there is a critical mass of them, they change the nature of the universe.' (GP)
The pen might not be mightier than the sword, but maybe the printing press was heavier than the siege weapon. Just a few words can change everything ... (MR)
Words are the litmus paper of the minds. If you find yourself in the power of someone who will use the word ‘commence’ in cold blood, go somewhere else very quickly. But if they say ‘Enter’, don’t stop to pack. (SG)
Granny had never had much time for words. They were so insubstantial. Now she wished that she had found the time. Words were indeed insubstantial. They were as soft as water, but they were also as powerful as water and now they were rushing over the audience, eroding the levees of veracity, and carrying away the past. (WS)
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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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