Original artwork, not a still
Carpe Jugulum · 1998
Sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Granny Weatherwax's moral code in one line: wrongdoing starts when someone stops being a person to you, or to themselves. It is among Pratchett's most quoted ethical statements and is used in discussions of exploitation, bureaucracy and cruelty, because it is simple enough to apply and hard enough to live by. The 'including yourself' clause is what makes readers pause.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Carpe JugulumShow the scene
In Carpe Jugulum (1998), Granny Weatherwax travels with Mightily Oats, a young and doubting priest of the god Om, through the mist with a mule. Oats mentions that the Omnian church is debating the nature of sin and there are many shades of grey. Granny answers that there are no greys, only white that has gone grubby, and then gives her definition. When he protests that it is more complicated, she says people only say that when they are worried they will not like the truth.
Sources (1)
- Wikiquote: DiscworldCarpe Jugulum (1998), pp. 277-278Reference checked
Context reviewed