I may have mentioned this once or twice before, but I like Terry Pratchett and I especially like his Discworld. I know – shocking, right? It is one of my more well-hidden secrets. The thing I like best about Sir Terry is that he wasn’t only an author. He was a philosopher too, one of the most original and brightest minds to ever grace the pantheon of fantasy authors and, I would passionately argue, authors in general.
Some of his funnier observations are very well known, and rightly so, but I am here so often for those words of his that were trying to say something more. When it comes to putting ‘life’ into quotable chunks, Sir Terry was king. Some of these I have presented to you before, tacked onto the end of my re-reads but I definitely feel like they deserve some airtime and some consideration of their own. Some of them are things that have stayed with me from the books I am yet to re-read. All of them are some of his best work.
In looking for a theme for my list, rather than just literally listing every quote I like (which would be a LOT), I actually came up with trying to find things that might help a bit in negotiating the hell scape that has been 2016 so far – and we aren’t even including the possible result of the US election yet. All jokes about the disgusting Wotsit Man aside, it has been a considerably difficult year for this little world of ours, and sometimes we could all do with a few words of wisdom to help us through. I take great comfort from Sir Terry and always have done, and I hope that you will too. So here are some of his most thought provoking musings, and I invite you to take a few minutes and really think about them. I’ll be willing to bet you feel better for it afterwards.
‘…no-one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away… The span of someone’s life, they say, is only the core of their actual existence’
– ‘Reaper Man’
‘What have I always believed? That on the whole, and by and large, if a man lived properly, not according to what any priests said, but according to what seemed decent and honest inside, then it would, at the end, more or less, turn out all right’
– ‘Small Gods’
‘…people you can believe in sometimes, but not gods’
– ‘Carpe Jugulum’
‘Talent just defines what you do…It doesn’t define what you are. Deep down, I mean. When you know what you are, you can do anything’
– ‘Sourcery’
‘You know what the greatest tragedy is in the whole world? … It’s all the people who never find out what it is they really want to do or what it is they’re really good at. It’s all the sons who become blacksmiths because their fathers were blacksmiths. It’s all the people who could be really fantastic flute players who grow old and die without ever seeing a musical instrument, so they become bad ploughmen instead. It’s all the people with talents who never even find out. Maybe they are never even born in a time when it’s even possible to find out. It’s all the people who never get to know what it is that they can really be. It’s all the wasted chances.’
– ‘Moving Pictures’
‘It’s vital to remember who you really are. It’s very important. It isn’t a good idea to rely on other people or things to do it for you, you see. They always get it wrong.’
– ‘Sourcery’
‘Personal’s not the same as important. People just think it is.’
– ‘Lords and Ladies‘
‘There isn’t a way things should be. There’s just what happens, and what we do.’
– ‘A Hat Full of Sky’
‘Goodness is about what you do. Not who you pray to.’
– ‘Snuff’
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