Quotes from The Last Continent

“But we're a university! We have to have a library!" said Ridcully. "It adds tone. What sort of people would we be if we didn't go into the library?"

"Students," said Senior Wrangler morosely.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“I'm trying to remember how you tell the time by looking at the sun." -"I should leave it for a while, it's too bright to see the numbers at the moment.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“I don't think I've drunk enough beer to understand that.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“...the proliferation of luminous fungi or iridescent crystals in deep caves where the torchlessly improvident hero needs to see is one of the most obvious intrusions of narrative causality into the physical universe.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Ridcully was to management what King Herod was to the Bethlehem Playgroup Association. ”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Any true wizard, faced with a sign like 'Do not open this door. Really. We mean it. We're not kidding. Opening this door will mean the end of the universe,' would automatically open the door in order to see what all the fuss is about. This made signs rather a waste of time, but at least it meant that when you handed what was left of the wizard to his grieving relatives you could say, as they grasped the jar, 'We told him not to.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Once upon a time the plural of 'wizard' was 'war'.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Cake is not the issue here.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Now look," snapped the Dean, "we've searched everywhere for a decent library on this island. There simply isn't one! It's ridiculous. How is anyone supposed to get anything done?”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Rincewind had always been happy to think of himself as a racist. The One Hundred Meters, the Mile, the Marathon -- he'd run them all.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“We put all our politicians in prison as soon as they’re elected. Don’t you?” “Why?” “It saves time.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Unseen University was much bigger on the inside. Thousands of years as the leading establishment of practical magic in a world where dimensions were largely a matter of chance in any case had left it bulging in places where it shouldn't have places. There were rooms containing rooms which, if you entered them, turned out to contain the room you'd started with, which can be a problem if you are in a conga line.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“We may even find out why the duck-billed platypus.*

*Not why is it anything. Just why it is.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Knowledge is dangerous, which is why governments often clamp down on people who can think thoughts above a certain caliber.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“The thing about late-night cookery was that it made sense at the time. It always had some logic behind it. It just wasn’t the kind of logic you’d use around midday.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Interesting thing, these fellows never seem to get the idea of perspective-'
The Bursar thought, or received the thought: that's because perspective is a lie. If I know a pond is round then why should I draw it oval? I will draw it round because round is true. Why should my brush lie to you just because my eye lies to me?”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“... and all those frogs going 'Rabbit, rabbit'..."
"I think, sir, that it was 'Ribbit, ribbit'..."
"So, what goes 'Rabbit, rabbit'?"
"Rabbits, I think. All the time...”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“I THINK PERHAPS YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. PEOPLE’S WHOLE LIVES DO PASS IN FRONT OF THEIR EYES BEFORE THEY DIE. THE PROCESS IS CALLED “LIVING.” WOULD YOU LIKE A PRAWN?”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Los historiadores han observado que es en las épocas de abundancia cuando se siente el deseo de ir a la guerra. En tiempos de hambruna, la gente está demasiado ocupada intentando encontrar algo que comer. Cuando sólo tienen lo justo para ir tirando, las personas tienden a ser afables y educadas. Pero cuando se les sirve un banquete, enseguida deciden que ha llegado el momento de discutir quién se sienta dónde.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Like sheep which, having been driven to a pasture, can now spread out at their leisure, the clouds began to drift. Afternoon sunlight sliced through into the still waters. The boomerang hung in the sky, and the boy thought he would have to find a new word for the way the colours glowed.
In the meantime, he looked down at the water and tried out the word he'd been taught by his grandfather, who'd been taught it by his grandfather, and which had been kept for thousands of years for when it would been needed.
It meant the smell after rain.
It had, he thought, been well worth waiting for.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Ponder Stibbons was one of those unfortunate people cursed with the belief that if only he found out enough things about the universe it would all, somehow, make sense.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Well, she knew the risks when she got the job,” said the Dean. “What?” said the Senior Wrangler. “Are you saying that before you apply for the job of housekeeper of a university you should seriously consider being eaten by sharks on the shores of some mysterious continent thousands of years before you are born?” “She didn’t ask many questions at the interview, I know that.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Интелектът е като краката - прекаленото количество се превръща в липса на качество.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“It is very easy to get ridiculously confused about the tenses of time travel, but most things can be resolved by a sufficiently large ego.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“Me parece que no lo entiendes. Las vidas de las personas pasan por delante de sus ojos antes de que mueran, y el proceso se llama 'vivir'. ¿Te apetece un camarón?”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

“I'm quite sure primitive people have no difficulties surviving in a place like this, and think of all the things we have that our rude forefathers lacked.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent

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Popular quotes

“We were the centre of that liquid universe, for we were the night sun and we said to ships, do not come too close, we have rocks at our feet. And the crash of waves sent white spray flying, and I am scared and exhilarated and a little bit in love too.”
― Sarah Winman, quote from A Year of Marvellous Ways

“In the Ummah, there was no tradition of veiling until around 627 C.E., when the so-called “verse of hijab” suddenly descended upon the community. That verse, however, was addressed not to women in general, but exclusively to Muhammad’s wives:”
― Reza Aslan, quote from No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam

“Let me just be in the ground.
Let me just be in the ground and go to sleep.”
― Joan Didion, quote from Blue Nights

“Playing chess with my father is torture. I have to sit very upright on the edge of my chair and respect the rules of impassivity while I consider my next move. I can feel myself dissolving under his stare. When I move a pawn he asks sarcastically, 'Have you really thought about what you're doing?' I panic and want to move the pawn back. He doesn't allow it: 'You've touched the piece, now you have to follow through. Think before you act. Think.”
― quote from The Only Girl in the World: A Memoir

“«Un buen libro, Marcus, no se mide sólo por sus últimas palabras, sino por el efecto colectivo de todas las palabras precedentes. Apenas medio segundo después de haber terminado el libro, tras haber leído la última palabra, el lector debe sentirse invadido por un fuerte sentimiento; durante un instante, sólo debe pensar en todo lo que acaba de leer, mirar la portada y sonreír con un gramo de tristeza porque va a echar de menos a todos los personajes. Un buen libro, Marcus, es un libro que uno se arrepiente de terminar.»”
― Joël Dicker, quote from La verdad sobre el caso Harry Quebert

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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.