“What you have here is an example of that well known phenomenon, A Bookshop Assistant Who Knows Buggerall But Won't Admit It (probably some kind of arts graduate).”

— Terry Pratchett

Usenet

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 29, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "What you have here is an example of that well known phenomenon, A Bookshop Assistant Who Knows Buggerall But Won't Admi…" by Terry Pratchett?

Terry Pratchett 796

English author 1948–2015

Darby Conley (1970) American cartoonist

page V (preface), groovitude

“Do you smoke?

Well, yes, I must admit I smoke.

I'm glad to hear of it. A man should always have an occupation of some kind.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“You will probably have what is called a Christian Church here; they will not admit that we are Christians, but they cannot think us further from the plan of salvation as revealed from heaven than we know them to be, so we are even on that ground, as far as it goes.”

Brigham Young (1801–1877) Latter Day Saint movement leader

Journal of Discourses 14:196 (June 3, 1871)
1870s

“If, then, a phenomenon admits of a complete mechanical explanation, it will admit of an infinity of others, that will render an account equally well of all the particulars revealed by experiment.”

Henri Poincaré book Science and Hypothesis

Si donc un phénomène comporte une explication mécanique complète, il en comportera une infinité d’autres qui rendront également bien compte de toutes les particularités révélées par l’expérience.
Source: Science and Hypothesis (1901), Ch. XII: Optics and Electricity, as translated by George Bruce Halsted (1913)