Quotes from Interesting Times

“And therefore education at the University mostly worked by the age-old method of putting a lot of young people in the vicinity of a lot of books and hoping that something would pass from one to the other, while the actual young people put themselves in the vicinity of inns and taverns for exactly the same reason.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“There is a curse.
They say:
May you live in interesting times.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“He’d always felt he had a right to exist as a wizard in the same way that you couldn’t do proper maths without the number 0, which wasn’t a number at all but, if it went away, would leave a lot of larger numbers looking bloody stupid.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“Probably the last sound heard before the Universe folded up like a paper hat would be someone saying, “What happens if I do this?”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“Many things went on at Unseen University and, regrettably, teaching had to be one of them. The faculty had long ago confronted this fact and had perfected various devices for avoiding it. But this was perfectly all right because, to be fair, so had the students.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“It was impossible for him to get bored. He just didn't have the imagination.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“I heard the Empire has a tyrannical and repressive government!"
"What form of government is that?" said Ponder Stibbons.
"A tautology," said the Dean, from above.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“The Empire's got something worse than whips all right. It's got obedience. Whips in the soul. They obey anyone who tells them what to do. Freedom just means being told what to do by someone different.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“You could say to the universe this is not fair. And the universe would say: Oh, isn’t it? Sorry.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“Most of the gods throw dice but Fate plays chess, and you don't find out until too late that he's been using two queens all along. Fate wins.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“In life, as in breakfast cereal, it is always best to read the instructions on the box.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“He wanted to say: how could you be so nice and yet so dumb? The best thing you could do with the peasents was to leave them alone. Let them get on with it. When people who can read and write start fighting for those who can't, you just end up with another kind of stupidity. If you want to help them, build a big library or something somewhere and leave the door open.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“They stole from rich merchants and temples and kings. They didn't steal from poor people; this was not because there was anything virtuous about poor people, it was simply because poor people had no money.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“Oh, no," said the Lecturer in Recent Runes, pushing his chair back. "Not that. That's meddling with things you don't understand."
"Well, we are wizards," said Ridcully. "We're supposed to meddle in things we don't understand. If we hung around waitin' till we understood things we'd never get anything done.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“And when in doubt, take all your clothes off,' said Caleb. 'What for?' 'Sign of a good berserk, taking all your clothes off. Frightens the hell out of the enemy. If anyone starts laughing, stab 'em one.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“Ricewind had always relied on running away. But somerimes, perhaps, you had to stand and fight, if only because there was nowhere left to run.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“A foot on the neck is nine points of the law.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“with the expression of one who knows that the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“Do teachers go anywhere special when they die?’ said Cohen. ‘I don’t think so,’ said Mr Saveloy gloomily. He wondered for a moment whether there really was a great Free Period in the sky. It didn’t sound very likely. Probably there would be some marking to do.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“Look, I don’t mind summoning some demon and asking it,” said the Lecturer in Recent Runes. “That’s normal. But building some mechanical contrivance to do your thinking for you, that’s … against Nature.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“They were probably descended from people who learned that if you look too hard at anyone on horseback you receive a sharp stinging sensation such as might be obtained by a stick around the ear. Not looking up at people on horseback had become hereditary. People who stared at people on horseback in what was considered to be a funny way never survived long enough to breed.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“with one mighty bound, you could be free. Provided you realized it was one of your options.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“The Four Horsemen whose Ride presages the end of the world are known to be Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence. But even less significant events have their own Horsemen. For example, the Four Horsemen of the Common Cold are Sniffles, Chesty, Nostril, and Lack of Tissues; the Four Horsemen whose appearance foreshadows any public holiday are Storm, Gales, Sleet, and Contra-flow.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“Cohen looked at the forest of lances and pennants. Hundreds of thousands of men looked like quite a lot of men when you saw them close to.

"I suppose," he said, slowly, "that none of you has got some amazing plan you've been keeping quiet about?"

"We thought you had one," said Truckle.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“No one likes a poor thief.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“I am not frightened,' said Lord Tang. 'I am ashamed.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“Adventure! People talked about the idea as if it was something worthwhile, rather than a mess of bad food, no sleep, and strange people inexplicably trying to stick pointed objects in bits of you.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“I feel like a million dollars don't you? ... Good, Lets go get some.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

“Three Pink Pig and Five White Fang were, loosely speaking, privates, and not just because they were pale, vulnerable, and inclined to curl up and hide when danger threatened.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Interesting Times

About the author

Popular quotes

“You have made me ashamed of the wasted years. You have made me acknowledge that no darkness has ever been deep enough to extinguish my personal knowledge of love. And all around me in this world I see evidence of love. I see love. I see it in the human struggle. I see its undeniable penetration in all that humans have accomplished in their poetry, their painting, their music, their love of one another and refusal to accept suffering as their lot.”
― Anne Rice, quote from Pandora

“Cain killed Abel, and the blood cried out from the ground--a story so sad that even God took notice of it. Maybe it was not the sadness of the story, since worse things have happened every minute since that day, but its novelty that He found striking. In the newness of the world God was a young man, and grew indignant over the slightest things. In the newness of the world God had perhaps not Himself realized the ramifications of certain of his laws, for example, that shock will spend itself in waves; that our images will mimic every gesture, and that shattered they will multiply and mimic every gesture ten, a hundred, or a thousand times. Cain, the image of God, gave the simple earth of the field a voice and a sorrow, and God himself heard the voice, and grieved for the sorrow, so Cain was a creator, in the image of his creator.”
― Marilynne Robinson, quote from Housekeeping

“He thought of how calm he was. His calm was so perfect that he could not destroy it even by being conscious of it. ”
― Nathanael West, quote from Miss Lonelyhearts / The Day of the Locust

“I was modest--they accused me of being crafty: I became secretive. I felt deeply good and evil--nobody caressed me, everybody offended me: I became rancorous. I was gloomy--other children were merry and talkative. I felt myself superior to them--but was considered inferior: I became envious. I was ready to love the whole world--none understood me: and I learned to hate.”
― Mikhail Lermontov, quote from A Hero of Our Time

“Oh my God", Marc rhapsodized. "Who is that ?"
"An asshole," I mumbled, turning back to him and picking up my tea. I was so rattled I sloshed some of the hot liquid on my hand, but I didn't feel a thing.
"He's coming over here !" Marc squealed. "Oh my God, oh my God, ohmyGod!"
"Will you get a hold of yourself?" I hissed. "You sound like a girl with a crush. Ah-ha!”
― MaryJanice Davidson, quote from Undead and Unwed

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.