Terrys Quotes

So yesterday I saw the very sad news that one of my favourite authors died. I’m sure Sir Terry Pratchett met Death as an old friend and they had a nice chat as they passed through.

But it left me looking over a list of some of my favourite quotes from his books, he really was a genius and I thought I would share some of them.

Most of them are things that I have thought about crafting in one way or the other, either by cross stitch or drawn on to tote bags and some of them are just brilliant quotes I had to save.

Many people could say things in a cutting way, Nanny knew. But Granny Weatherwax could listen in a cutting way. She could make something sound stupid just by hearing it.

“There’s a door.”
“Where does it go?”
“It stays where it is, I think.”

Nanny Ogg knew how to start spelling ‘banana’, but didn’t know how you stopped.

“It’s daft, locking us up,” said Nanny. “I’d have had us killed.”
“That’s because you’re basically good,” said Magrat. “The good are innocent and create justice. The bad are guilty, which is why they invent mercy.”

You know, you’re rather amusingly wrong.

Susan says, don’t get afraid, get angry.

“-Oh yes? Can you identify yourself?
-Certainly. I’d know me anywhere.”

But what should we do when the highborn and wealthy take to crime? Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger, how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man who breaks the law out of greed?

See a pin and pick it up, and, all day long, you’ll have a pin.

“Listen, three eyes,” he said, “don’t you try to outweird me, I get stranger things than you free with my breakfast cereal.”

Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad.

These are just a selection, as i’m sure that if i started reading through more quotes this post would be as long as his books. Do you have a favourite Terry Pratchett quote? I would love to hear more.