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

Source: Wintersmith

Last update Sept. 29, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Ach, people are always telling us not to do things" said Rob Anybody, "that's how we ken the most interesting things to…" by Terry Pratchett?
Terry Pratchett photo
Terry Pratchett 796
English author 1948–2015

Related quotes

George S. Patton photo

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”

George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general

War As I Knew It (1947) "Reflections and Suggestions"

Terry Pratchett photo
Patricia Highsmith photo
Jon Krakauer photo

“Most of us fear death. Most of us yearn to comprehend how we got here, and why — which is to say, most of us ache to know the love of our creator. And we will no doubt feel that ache, most of us, for as long as we happen to be alive.”

Jon Krakauer (1954) American outdoors writer and journalist

Author's Remarks.
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (2003)
Context: I don't know what God is, or what God had in mind when the universe was set in motion. In fact, I don't know if God even exists, although I confess that I sometimes find myself praying in times of great fear, or despair, or astonishment at a display of unexpected beauty. There are some ten thousand religious sects — each with its own cosmology, each with its own answer for the meaning of life and death. Most assert that the other 9,999 not only have it completely wrong but are instruments of evil, besides. None of the ten thousand has yet persuaded me to make the requisite leap of faith. In the absence of conviction, I've come to terms with the fact that uncertainty is an inescapable corollary of life. An abundance of mystery is simply part of the bargain — which doesn't strike me as something to lament. Accepting the essential inscrutability of existence, in any case, is surely preferable to its opposite: capitulating to the tyranny of intransigent belief. And if I remain in the dark about our purpose here, and the meaning of eternity, I have nevertheless arrived at an understanding of a few modest truths: Most of us fear death. Most of us yearn to comprehend how we got here, and why — which is to say, most of us ache to know the love of our creator. And we will no doubt feel that ache, most of us, for as long as we happen to be alive.

“How about,” she said, “that you do the logical thing because it’s the logical thing to do?”

Source: Hyperion (1989), Chapter 5 (p. 315)

Alfie Kohn photo

“Most things that we and the people around us do constantly… have come to seem so natural and inevitable that merely to pose the question, 'Why are we doing this?”

can strike us as perplexing – and also, perhaps, a little unsettling. On general principle, it is a good idea to challenge ourselves in this way about anything we have come to take for granted; the more habitual, the more valuable this line of inquiry.
Punished by Rewards

Swami Vivekananda photo

“Watch people do their most common actions; these are indeed the things that will tell you the real character of a great person.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Pearls of Wisdom

Jodi Picoult photo
Jack Johnson (musician) photo

Related topics