When you got right down to the bottom of the ladder the rungs were very close together and, oh my, weren’t the women careful about them. In their own way, they were as haughty as any duchess. You might not have much, but you could have Standards. Clothes might be cheap and old but at least they could be scrubbed. There might be nothing behind the front door worth stealing but at least the doorstep could be clean enough to eat your dinner off, if you could’ve afforded dinner. (NW)
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People said that there was one law for the rich and one law for the poor, but it wasn’t true. There was no law for those who made the law, and no law for the incorrigibly lawless. All the laws and rules were for those people stupid enough to think like Cockbill Street people. (FC)
When people are trying to kill you, it means you’re doing something right. It was a rule Sam had lived by. (Th)
The beggars, despite being too disreputable even to belong to the Beggars’ Guild, lived quite well by their own low standards. This was generally by careful application of the Certainty Principle. People would give them all sorts of things if they were certain to go away. (H)
Like many people with no actual morals, Lord Downey did have standards. (H)
... Cutwell had learned once again that the one universal manifestation of raw, natural magic throughout the universe is this: that any domestic food store, raided furtively in the middle of the night, always contains, no matter what its daytime inventory, half a jar of elderly mayonnaise, a piece of very old cheese, and a tomato with white mould growing on it. (M)
... direct levitation is the hardest of the practical magics, because of the ever-present danger of the well-known
principles of action and reaction, which means that a wizard attempting to lift a heavy item by mind power alone faces the prospect of ending up with his brains in his boots. (ER) ... magic had indeed once been wild and lawless, but had been tamed back in the mists of time by the Olden Ones, who had bound it to obey among other things the Law of Conservation of Reality; this demanded that the effort needed to achieve a goal should be the same regardless of the means used. In practical terms this meant that, say, creating the illusion of a glass of wine was relatively easy, since it involved merely the subtle shifting of light patterns. On the other hand, lifting a genuine wineglass a few feet in the air by sheer mental energy required several hours of systematic preparation if the wizard wished to prevent the simple principle of leverage flicking his brain out through his ears. (COM)
There are some laws, though, that are coded into the very nature of the universe, and one is: There Is Never Enough Shelf Space. (SODW)
The three rules of the Librarians of Time and Space are: 1) Silence; 2) Books must be returned no later than the last date shown; and 3) Do not interfere with the nature of causality. (GG)
'Even tyrants have to obey the law.’ He paused, looking thoughtful, and continued:‘No, I tell a lie, tyrants do not have to obey the law, obviously, but they do have to observe the niceties.' (MM)
Trymon knew all about rules and had always considered they were for making, not obeying. (LF)
'So what you’re saying,’ said Magrat, icily, ‘is that this “not meddling” thing is like taking a vow not to swim. You’ll absolutely never break it unless of course you happen to find yourself in the water?' (WS)
'...what about this rule about not meddling?’ said Magrat.
'Ah,’said Nanny. She took the girl’s arm. ‘The thing is,’ she explained, ‘as you progress in the Craft, you’ll learn there is another rule. Esme’s obeyed it all her life.’ ‘And what’s that?’ 'When you break rules, break ‘em good and hard,’ said Nanny, and grinned a set of gums that were more menacing than teeth. (WS) …she was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don’t apply to you. (ER)
There was, there always was, at the start and finish…the Code. They lived by the Code. You followed the Code, and you became part of the Code for those who followed you. The Code was it. Without the Code you weren’t a hero. You were just a thug in a loincloth. (LH)
'Dojo! What is Rule One?’
Even the cowering challenger mumbled along to the chorus: ‘Do not act incautiously when confronting little bald wrinkly smiling men!' (TOT) |
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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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