"I create gods all the time - now I think one might exist" (2008)
Contexto: Belief was never mentioned at home, but right actions were taught by daily example.
Possibly because of this, I have never disliked religion. I think it has some purpose in our evolution.
I don't have much truck with the "religion is the cause of most of our wars" school of thought because that is manifestly done by mad, manipulative and power-hungry men who cloak their ambition in God.
I number believers of all sorts among my friends. Some of them are praying for me. I'm happy they wish to do this, I really am, but I think science may be a better bet.
Terry Pratchett: Frases en inglés (página 6)
Terry Pratchett era escritor británico de fantasía y ciencia ficción. Frases en inglés.“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.
The Carpet People (1971; 1992)
“You can’t make people happy by law.”
Usenet
Contexto: You can’t make people happy by law. If you said to a bunch of average people two hundred years ago “Would you be happy in a world where medical care is widely available, houses are clean, the world’s music and sights and foods can be brought into your home at small cost, traveling even 100 miles is easy, childbirth is generally not fatal to mother or child, you don’t have to die of dental abcesses and you don’t have to do what the squire tells you” they’d think you were talking about the New Jerusalem and say ‘yes’.
Usenet
Contexto: Oh dear, I'm feeling political today. It's just that it's dawned on me that 'zero tolerance' only seems to mean putting extra police in poor, run-down areas, and not in the Stock Exchange.
“If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice.”
Final lines of his Richard Dimbleby lecture Shaking Hands With Death on euthanasia and assisted suicide, quoted in "Terry Pratchett: my case for a euthanasia tribunal" in The Guardian (2 February 2010) http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/feb/02/terry-pratchett-assisted-suicide-tribunal
General sources
Contexto: I dare say that quite a few people have contemplated death for reasons that much later seemed to them to be quite minor. If we are to live in a world where a socially acceptable "early death" can be allowed, it must be allowed as a result of careful consideration.
Let us consider me as a test case. As I have said, I would like to die peacefully with Thomas Tallis on my iPod before the disease takes me over and I hope that will not be for quite some time to come, because if I knew that I could die at any time I wanted, then suddenly every day would be as precious as a million pounds. If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice.
The Carpet People (1971; 1992)
Contexto: 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.
“Even if it's not your fault, it's your responsibility.”
Fuente: A Hat Full of Sky
“No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away…”
Fuente: Reaper Man
“Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.”
Fuente: Hogfather
“Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.”
Variante: It's better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
Fuente: Men at Arms: The Play
“All tapes left in a car for more than about a fortnight metamorphose into Best of Queen albums.”
Fuente: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
“Progress just means bad things happen faster.”
Fuente: Witches Abroad
“Nanny Ogg looked under her bed in case there was a man there. Well, you never knew your luck.”
Fuente: Lords and Ladies