Terry Pratchett: Thing (page 3)

“Learnin’ how not to do things is as hard as learning how to do them.”

“One day all of us will die but - and this is the important thing - we are not dead yet.”

“Once you gave a thing a name, you gave it life.”

“It is a long-cherished tradition among a certain type of military thinker that huge casualties are the main thing. If they are on the other side then this is a valuable bonus.”

“The people who really run organizations are usually found several levels down, where it is still possible to get things done.”

“They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.”

“There was no safety. There was no pride. All there was, was money. Everything became money, and money became everything. Money treated us as if we were things, and we died.”

“When you can flatten entire cities at a whim, a tendency towards quiet reflection and seeing-things-from-the-other-fellow's-point- of-view is seldom necessary.”

“Things just happen, one after another. They don't care who knows. But… ah, history is different. History has to be observed. Otherwise it's not history. It's just… well, things happening one after another.”

“It's hard to explain," said Brutha. "But I think it's got something to do with how people should behave… you should do things because they're right. Not because gods say so. They might say something different another time.”

“When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they're getting worried that they won't like the truth.”

“Things are not as they seem. They are what they are.”

“YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.”

“Trouble is, just because things are obvious doesn't mean they're true.”

“Ach, people are always telling us not to do things" said Rob Anybody, "that's how we ken the most interesting things to do.”

“Few things are hidden from a quiet child with good eyesight.”

“But in his experience it was only a matter of time before the normal balance of the universe restored itself and started doing the usual terrible things to him.”

“One of the things forgotten about the human spirit is that while it is, in the right conditions, noble and brave and wonderful, it is also, when you get right down to it, only human.”

“When people say "clearly" something that means there's a huge crack in their argument and they know things aren't clear at all.”