50 Quotes About The Beauty Of Being Human From Terry Pratchett

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50 Quotes About The Beauty Of Being Human From Terry Pratchett

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

Holly RiordanMarch 1, 2017

It's always surprising to be reminded that while you're watching and thinking about people, all knowing and superior, they're watching and thinking about you, right back at you.

— Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

People Watching Thinking humans

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The whole of life is just like watching a film. Only it's as though you always get in ten minutes after the big picture has started, and no-one will tell you the plot, so you have to work it out all yourself from the clues.

— Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures

Life Films Plot

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The trouble is you can shut your eyes but you can’t shut your mind.

— Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith

Eyes minds Shut Down

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After all, when you seek advice from someone it's certainly not because you want them to give it. You just want them to be there while you talk to yourself.

— Terry Pratchett, Jingo

Advice talking help

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Goodness is about what you do. Not who you pray to.

— Terry Pratchett, Snuff

Goodness Pray prayer

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Every step is a first step if it's a step in the right direction.

— Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

Moving Forward Baby Steps Progress

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Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?

— Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

dead Death alive

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The worst thing you can do is nothing.

— Terry Pratchett, Snuff

Nothing Inactive Lazy

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The enemy isn't men, or women, it's bloody stupid people and no one has the right to be stupid.

— Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment

Enemy stupidity Men Women

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Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.

— Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms: The Play

Darkness Light Flamethrower

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It is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you're attempting can't be done.

— Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

Success Ignorance possibilities

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It is important that we know where we come from, because if you do not know where you come from, then you don't know where you are, and if you don't know where you are, you don't know where you're going. And if you don't know where you're going, you're probably going wrong.

— Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

Past Future present

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Sometimes you laugh because you've got no more room for crying.

— Terry Pratchett, Nation

Laughter Crying Tears

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If you stop tellin' people it's all sorted out after they're dead, they might try sorting it all out while they're alive.

— Terry Pratchett, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

dead alive Living

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If failure had no penalty success would not be a prize.

— Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Failure Success Prizes

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They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

— Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

Knowledge Ignorance danger

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We sleepwalk through our lives, because how could we live if we were always this awake?

— Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

Sleepwalking Awake Asleep

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Destiny is important, see, but people go wrong when they think it controls them. It's the other way around.

— Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

Destiny Control Fate

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Your own brain ought to have the decency to be on your side!

— Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith

Brains Self-Love Self-Hate

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Seeing things a human shouldn't have to see makes us human.

— Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

human humanity Destruction

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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.

— Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

remember Identity

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Life is a trick, and you get one chance to learn it.

— Terry Pratchett, Nation

Life tricks One Chance

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You know how to pray, don’t you? Just put your hands together and hope.

— Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

prayer Praying Hope

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All there was, was money. Everything became money, and money became everything. Money treated us as if we were things, and we died.

— Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

Money finances Death

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People don't like change. But make the change fast enough and you go from one type of normal to another.

— Terry Pratchett, Making Money

Changes Change normal

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One of the hardest lessons in young Sam's life had been finding out that the people in charge weren't in charge. It had been finding out that governments were not, on the whole, staffed by people who had a grip, and that plans were what people made instead of thinking.

— Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

Government Politics Power

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I know that I am a small, weak man, but I have amassed a large library; I dream of dangerous places.

— Terry Pratchett, Snuff

Weak Books Reading

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Ninety percent of true love is acute, ear-burning embarrassment.

— Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

Love embarrassed True Love

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Two types of people laugh at the law: those that break it and those that make it.

— Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

Law Criminals Government

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The trouble with life was that you didn’t get a chance to practice before doing it for real.

— Terry Pratchett, Pyramids

practice Life Living

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The trouble with thinking was that, once you started, you went on doing it.

— Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

Thinking Thoughts Mind

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People aren't just people, they are people surrounded by circumstances.

— Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

People Circumstances humans

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Wisdom is one of the few things that looks bigger the further away it is.

— Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

Wisdom Intelligence Illusion

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There's always a story. It's all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything's got a story in it.

— Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

Stories Life Story

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Sometimes I really think people ought to have to pass a proper exam before they're allowed to be parents. Not just the practical, I mean.

— Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

Parents Parenting Children

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Steal five dollars and you're a common thief. Steal thousands and you're either the government or a hero.

— Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

Thief Money Government

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Joy is to fun what the deep sea is to a puddle. It’s a feeling inside that can hardly be contained.

— Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

Joy Fun Puddle Sea

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Only in our dreams are we free.

— Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

Dreams Freedom Sleeping

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He'd noticed that sex bore some resemblance to cookery: it fascinated people, they sometimes bought books full of complicated recipes and interesting pictures, and sometimes when they were really hungry they created vast banquets in their imagination - but at the end of the day they'd settle quite happily for egg and chips. If it was well done and maybe had a slice of tomato.

— Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant

Cooking Sex Imagination

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There isn't a way things should be. There's just what happens, and what we do.

— Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

Destiny Fate Life

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If you don't turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else's story.

— Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

Stories Life live life

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Sometimes glass glitters more than diamonds because it has more to prove.

— Terry Pratchett, The Truth

Glass Diamonds Worth

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Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.

— Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

Evil People Things

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If you trust in yourself... and believe in your dreams... and follow your star... you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.

— Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

Work Hard laziness Dreams

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Time is a drug. Too much of it kills you.

— Terry Pratchett, Small Gods

Time Drugs danger

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If cats looked like frogs we'd realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. Style. That's what people remember.

— Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies

looks beauty cats Frogs

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It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.

— Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent

Life Death Dying

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Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.

— Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

humans possibilities stupidity

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The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

— Terry Pratchett, Diggers

Open Minds Open Minded

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Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

— Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

Growth Changes Leaving

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