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the lion may lie down with the lamb, even if only the lion is likely to get up again,
he did this because Samuel Vimes, who had never gone into a place of worship with religious aforethought, worshipped Lady Sybil, and not a day went past without his being amazed that she seemed to do the same to him.
Among his curses was doing the paperwork. There was always paperwork. It is well known that any drive to reduce paperwork only results in extra paperwork.
Vimes hadn’t argued. There was no point in arguing with Sybil, because even if you thought that you’d won, it would turn out, by some magic unavailable to husbands, that you had, in fact, been totally misinformed.
The two women were engrossed in the feminine pastime of taking clothes out of some things, and putting them into other things. This could go on for a long time, and included the ceremony of holding some things up to the light and giving a sad little sigh.
She’s got me marked down for balls, dances, dinners, and, oh yes, soirées,” he finished, in the tones of a man genetically programmed to distrust any word with an acute accent in it.
It was often a good idea, Vimes had always found, to give the silly bits of the brain something to do, so that they did not interfere with the important ones which had a proper job to fulfil.
The second was the traditional urinary argument. It was better to have them inside pissing out than outside pissing in. It was at least easy to keep an eye on them.
That just goes to show that you never know, although what it is we never know I suspect we’ll never know.”
You didn’t have much control over your life but by Jimmy you could keep it clean and show the world you were poor but respectable.
Oh dear, you of all people must recognize a substition when you’re possessed by it? It’s the opposite of a superstition: it’s real even if you don’t believe in it.
it’s true that some of the most terrible things in the world are done by people who think, genuinely think, that they’re doing it for the best, especially if there is some god involved.
Goodness is about what you do. Not what you pray to.
What was a policeman, if not a civilian with a uniform and a badge? But they tended to use the term these days as a way of describing people who were not policemen. It was a dangerous habit: once policemen stopped being civilians the only other thing they could be was soldiers.
“What is normal? Normal is yesterday and last week and last month taken together.”
“You were just opening a way for the law to flow in, Sam. The end justifies the means.” “I’m afraid a lot of bad men have used that to justify bad things, dear.” Under the covers Sybil’s hand reached out to touch his. “That’s no reason why one good man shouldn’t use it to justify a good thing.
Do not seek perfection. None exists. All we can do is strive.
And, slightly better than before, the world will continue to turn.”
