“They called themselves the Munrungs. It meant The People, or The True Human Beings.
It's what most people call themselves, to begin with. And then one day the tribe meets some other People or, if it's not been a good day, The Enemy. If only they'd think up a name like Some More True Human Beings, it'd save a lot of trouble later on”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“You don't have to chase around after creatures, Pismire had said. You watch them for long enough, and then you'll find the place to wait and they'll come to you. There's nearly always a better way of doing something.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“He’s a man of few words, and he doesn’t know what either of them means,” people said, but not when he was within hearing.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“He thought of the deep crevasses and windy caves of Underlay, and the stories of the creatures that dwelt there. Of course, he didn’t believe in them. He’d told them, because the handing on of an oral mythology was very important to a developing culture, but he didn’t believe in supernatural monsters. He shivered. He hoped they didn’t believe in him.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“Most armies are in fact run by their sergeants—the officers are there just to give things a bit of tone and prevent warfare from becoming a mere lower-class brawl.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“Correct observation followed by meticulous deduction and the precise visualization of goals is vital to the success of any enterprise.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“Afterward, there was that long, crowded pause in which everyone decides that although they are very shaken, and possibly upside down, they are, to their surprise, still alive.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“...Merchant's Ware, the city most people thought of as the real city. Normally its narrow streets were crowded with stalls, and people from all over the Carpet. They'd each be trying to cheat one another in that open-and-aboveboard way known as "doing business.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“What you look at, you change.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“Positive thinking,' he would say, 'is also very important.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“Everywhere was connected to everywhere else, Pismire had said.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“The Carpet was full of life, but it did not know it was alive. It could be, but it could not think. It did not even know what it was. “And so from the dust came us, the Carpet People. We gave the Carpet its name, and named the creatures, and the weaving was complete.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“You don't have to chase around after creatures, Pismire had said.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“Glurk hit the guard in as friendly a way as possible.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“The apothecary’s name was Owlglass. He hummed to himself as he worked in his back room. He’d found a new type of blue fluff, which he was grinding down. It was probably good for curing something. He’d have to try it out on people until he found out what.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“but he didn’t believe in supernatural monsters. He shivered. He hoped they didn’t believe in him.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Carpet People
“A throne is always paid for in blood.
The king of En had told her that once. Even should a king's ascension be bloodless as a gift from Heaven, to hold onto one's throne invariably meant that blood must flow -- as it had at the beginning, in the fight against the false king's armies, and the quelling of civil war, and the execution of criminals.
Luckily, the fighting part was easy for Yoko. All she had to do was resist the temptation to run away.”
― Fuyumi Ono, quote from The Twelve Kingdoms: Skies of Dawn
“If America suffers from drugs, perhaps you should ask what America is lacking, [“What an asshole,”] Eric King commented suddenly. They ignored him.”
― Bruce Sterling, quote from Islands in the Net
“O great and mighty Master Li, pray impart to me the Secret of Wisdom!’ he bawled. A silly smile was sliding down the side of his face like a dripping watercolor, and his eyeballs resembled a pair of pink pigeon eggs that were gently bouncing in saucers of yellow won-ton soup. To my great credit I never batted an eyelash. ‘Take a large bowl,’ I said. ‘Fill it with equal measures of fact, fantasy, history, mythology, science, superstition, logic, and lunacy. Darken the mixture with bitter tears, brighten it with howls of laughter, toss in three thousand years of civilization, bellow kan pei—which means “dry cup”—and drink to the dregs.’ Procopius stared at me. ‘And I will be wise?’ he asked. ‘Better,’ I said. ‘You will be Chinese.’” Li”
― Barry Hughart, quote from The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox
“Civilized man longs for the illusion of barbarism. Either his culture fulfills this need by adopting its outer trappings, or he will be seduced by his first contact with a culture that does.”
― C.S. Friedman, quote from In Conquest Born
“Не можех да я зърна, защото бе навсякъде.”
― Jens Christian Grøndahl, quote from Silence in October
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.
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