Terry Pratchett — People

A glass orb filled with swirling violet light rests on a small clear stand against a dark indigo background. — Original artwork

And it came to pass that in time the Great God Om spake unto Brutha, the Chosen One: “Psst!”

Terry Pratchett

A black chess bishop and a red king standing along a diagonal strip of gray-blue squares. — Original artwork

Bishops move diagonally. That’s why they often turn up where the kings don’t expect them to be.

Terry Pratchett

Dark feathers spill from the bell of a brass trumpet on an ochre surface. — Original artwork

Brother Preptil, the master of the music, had described Brutha’s voice as putting him in mind of a disappointed vulture arriving too late at the dead donkey.

Terry Pratchett

Four small shields facing forward, with a fifth turned around and set apart on an olive background. — Original artwork

Brutha tried to nod, and thought: I’m on everyone’s side. It’d be nice if, just for once, someone was on mine.

Terry Pratchett

A large red crab beside a small yellow rubber duck on a wet turquoise surface. — Original artwork

Dhblah sidled closer. This was not hard. Dhblah sidled everywhere. Crabs thought he walked sideways.

Terry Pratchett

A hammer poised above a ceramic pot filled with brass nails, with loose nails beside it on a plum-gray surface. — Original artwork

Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.

Terry Pratchett

A bronze lever balances on a carved wooden fulcrum, with a small globe resting on its lowered end against a teal background. — Original artwork

Give anyone a lever long enough and they can change the world. It’s unreliable levers that are the problem.

Terry Pratchett

A blue teacup floating above its saucer, tethered by red string to a small iron weight. — Original artwork

Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off.

Terry Pratchett

An open brass balance-wheel mechanism with a tiny striped paper flag tucked in its gears on an ochre and navy background. — Original artwork

Guilt was the grease in which the wheels of the authority turned.

Terry Pratchett

A small archery target on an easel with one arrow in it and a gold ring floating above, on a teal background. — Original artwork

“He says gods like to see an atheist around. Gives them something to aim at.”

Terry Pratchett

History, contrary to popular theories, is kings and dates and battles.

Terry Pratchett

A wooden box topped with a black bowler hat, surrounded by small wooden figures. — Original artwork

“I like the idea of democracy. You have to have someone everyone distrusts,” said Brutha. “That way, everyone’s happy.”

Terry Pratchett

A die resting on a small green-and-cream checkered board, with a green pawn beside its edge. — Original artwork

In fact, no gods anywhere play chess. They prefer simple, vicious games, where you Do Not Achieve Transcendence but Go Straight to Oblivion; a key to the understanding of all religion is that a god’s idea of amusement is Snakes and Ladders with greased rungs.

Terry Pratchett

A flat world rests on four elephants standing on the back of a giant turtle swimming through space beside a bright burst of light. — Original artwork

In the Beginning there was nothing, which exploded.

Terry Pratchett

A young novice in a grey robe trudges across sunlit desert dunes carrying a small tortoise, a domed white citadel on the horizon. — Original artwork

It’s a god-eat-god world.

Terry Pratchett

A small sword lies on checked cloth between a yellow arrow near the hilt and a red arrow near the tip. — Original artwork

It's not enough to be able to pick up a sword. You have to know which end to poke into the enemy.

Terry Pratchett

An ornate gold mirror displays a pale jester's cap above draped ivory fabric and small gold objects. — Original artwork

“I used to think that I was stupid, and then I met philosophers.”

Terry Pratchett

A small silver key inside an open walnut shell beside a crumpled paper mask on indigo cloth. — Original artwork

Men should die for lies. But the truth is too precious to die for.

Terry Pratchett

A golden winged sandal stands beside a tilted gold ring and pale feathers against a dark blue background. — Original artwork

Most gods find it hard to walk and think at the same time.

Terry Pratchett

Painterly red feather quill, blank parchment scroll, small crown and ornate dagger on crimson fabric. — Original artwork

Not a man to mince words. People, yes. But not words.

Terry Pratchett

Two ceramic pet bowls, one filled with water and the other with dry food, rest on a folded green knitted blanket. — Original artwork

Pets are always a great help in times of stress. And in times of starvation too, o’course.

Terry Pratchett

Painterly partly dismantled brass clock mechanism and loose gears on a workbench. — Original artwork

Probably the last man who knew how it worked had been tortured to death years before. Or as soon as it was installed. Killing the creator was a traditional method of patent protection.

Terry Pratchett

Churning teal waves and white foam fill a small square glass tank against a blue-gray background. — Original artwork

“Slave is an Ephebian word. In Om we have no word for slave,” said Vorbis. “So I understand,” said the Tyrant. “I imagine that fish have no word for water.”

Terry Pratchett

A tilted glass jar containing a golden question mark, resting on plum velvet. — Original artwork

“That’s right,” he said. “We’re philosophers. We think, therefore we am.”

Terry Pratchett

A terracotta tile has a carved spiral maze with a small spring and a silver blade at its entrance. — Original artwork

The labyrinth of Ephebe is ancient and full of one hundred and one amazing things you can do with hidden springs, razor-sharp knives, and falling rocks.

Terry Pratchett

Painterly small brass gear beside a stack of larger gears under a beam of warm light. — Original artwork

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

Terry Pratchett

Painterly wooden megaphone spilling tangled gold and teal ribbons on a pale surface. — Original artwork

The trouble was that he was talking in philosophy, but they were listening in gibberish.

Terry Pratchett

Small empty slate chair facing a standing oval mirror — Original artwork

The trouble with being a god is that you’ve got no one to pray to.

Terry Pratchett

An open book and pale quill sit beside small brass scales and an ink pot beneath a golden beam of light. — Original artwork

“What’s a philosopher?” said Brutha. “Someone who’s bright enough to find a job with no heavy lifting,” said a voice in his head.

Terry Pratchett

Painterly open birdcage beside a floating pale feather on a violet background. — Original artwork

When the least they could do to you was everything, then the most they could do to you suddenly held no terror.

Terry Pratchett

An upright ornate hand mirror reflects a cloudy sky above grey rubble and small green leaves. — Original artwork

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.

Terry Pratchett

Orange and blue paper speech bubbles hang together by strings from a small hook against a cream background. — Original artwork

Words are the litmus paper of the minds. If you find yourself in the power of someone who will use the word “commence” in cold blood, go somewhere else very quickly. But if they say “Enter”, don’t stop to pack.

Terry Pratchett

Coiled green kelp rests in a blue-and-white porcelain spoon beside a pale glass pitcher and white coral. — Original artwork

"Yes, I thought it would be something like seaweed," agreed Rincewind. "They certainly taste like seaweed would taste if anyone was masochistic enough to eat seaweed."

Terry Pratchett

A small tortoise shell rests among dry leaves on a muted green surface. — Original artwork

You can’t trample infidels when you’re a tortoise. I mean, all you could do is give them a meaningful look.

Terry Pratchett

An iron poker leans beside a miniature wooden door, with mismatched chairs and a small stool gathered in front. — Original artwork

YOU HAVE PERHAPS HEARD THE PHRASE THAT HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE? “Yes. Yes, of course.” Death nodded. IN TIME, he said, YOU WILL LEARN THAT IT IS WRONG.

Terry Pratchett

A group of small white wooden figures with one teal figure standing apart on a round platform against a dark background. — Original artwork

You're not one of us. "I don't think I'm one of them, either," said Brutha. "I'm one of mine."

Terry Pratchett

Paper birds and a red thread rise from a blank open book beside a small wooden theatre with a landscape backdrop. — Original artwork

People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.

Terry Pratchett

Golden sand falls through a brass hourglass on a violet stone shelf against dark library shadows. — Original artwork

Time is a drug. Too much of it kills you.

Terry Pratchett

A sleigh drawn by flying boars and driven by a bearded figure in red soars over a snowy, crowded medieval city at night. — Original artwork

Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.

Terry Pratchett

A skeletal farmhand in a smock, a scythe over his shoulder, stands in a golden wheat field at sunset beside a cottage. — Original artwork

Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong.

Terry Pratchett

A band of tiny people on a ledge in a chalk quarry face a huge yellow excavator raising its bucket against a violet dusk sky. — Original artwork

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Terry Pratchett

A small hooded reader stands at a lectern before an enormous open book of dragons, unicorns and wizards in a vast candlelit library. — Original artwork

Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.

Terry Pratchett

A witch in a pointed hat stands among chimneys on a crooked rooftop of a fantasy city at dusk, the vast shapes of a world-turtle in the sky. — Original artwork

It's not worth doing something unless someone, somewhere, would much rather you weren't doing it.

Disputed attribution: Terry Pratchett