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@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023
Terry Pratchett photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Terry Pratchett photo

“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”

Terry Pratchett book A Hat Full of Sky

Variant: It doesn't stop being magic just because you know how it works.
Source: A Hat Full of Sky

Terry Pratchett photo

“She was beautiful, but she was beautiful in the way a forest fire was beautiful: something to be admired from a distance, not up close.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

Source: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Terry Pratchett photo

“Who would not rather be a rising ape than a falling angel?”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

A similar remark was reportedly made by Pratchett in The Herald (4 October 2004): I'd rather be a climbing ape than a falling angel.
"I create gods all the time - now I think one might exist" (2008)
Context: Evolution was far more thrilling to me than the biblical account. Who would not rather be a rising ape than a falling angel? To my juvenile eyes Darwin was proved true every day. It doesn't take much to make us flip back into monkeys again.

Terry Pratchett photo
Terry Pratchett photo

“There is a rumour going around that I have found God. I think this is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

"I create gods all the time - now I think one might exist" (2008)
Context: There is a rumour going around that I have found God. I think this is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist.
But it is true that in an interview I gave recently I did describe a sudden, distinct feeling I had one hectic day that everything I was doing was right and things were happening as they should.
It seemed like the memory of a voice and it came wrapped in its own brief little bubble of tranquillity. I'm not used to this.
As a fantasy writer I create fresh gods and philosophies almost with every new book … But since contracting Alzheimer's disease I have spent my long winter walks trying to work out what it is that I really, if anything, believe.

Terry Pratchett photo

“Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.”

Terry Pratchett book Hogfather

Source: Hogfather

Terry Pratchett photo

“In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.”

Terry Pratchett book Lords and Ladies

Source: Lords and Ladies

Terry Pratchett photo

“In ancient times cats were worshiped as gods; they have not forgotten this.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

Pratchett is credited as author of this, as quoted in Ghost Cats : Human Encounters with Feline Spirits (2007) by Dusty Rainbolt, p. 7, and in Chicken Soup for the Soul : What I Learned from the Cat (2009) by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Amy Newmark
Quote attributed to unknown author, in Chicken Soup for the Soul Celebrates Cats : And the People Who Love Them (2004) by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Sharon J. Wohlmuth, p. 1
General sources
Variant: In ancient times, cats were worshiped as gods. They have never forgotten this.

Terry Pratchett photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Terry Pratchett photo