The Shepherd's Crown (Discworld, #41; Tiffany Aching, #5)

by Terry Pratchett

But the reward for lots of work seemed to be lots more. If you dug the biggest hole, they just gave you a bigger shovel.

Reading is the way up. Knowledge is the key to everything.”

For a witch stands on the very edge of everything, between the light and the dark, between life and death, making choices, making decisions so that others may pretend no decisions have even been needed. Sometimes they need to help some poor soul through the final hours, help them to find the door, not to get lost in the dark.

don’t know about the world, not much; but in my part of the world I could make little miracles for ordinary people,” Granny replied sharply. “And I never wanted the world—just a part of it, a small part that I could keep safe, that I could keep away from storms. Not the ones of the sky, you understand: there are other kinds.”

FOR I CAN SEE THE BALANCE AND YOU HAVE LEFT THE WORLD MUCH BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT, AND IF YOU ASK ME, said Death, NOBODY COULD DO ANY BETTER THAN THAT. . .

How can I possibly tread in the footsteps of Granny Weatherwax? She is . . . was . . . unfollowable!

“Don’t get your knickers in a knot just yet, Tiff,” she said briskly. “It won’t solve anything an’ will just make you walk odd.

witch is always on the edge, between the light and the dark, good and bad, making choices every day, judging all the time. It was what made her human. But what was it that made an elf? she wondered.

For one person alone cannot survive. We humans definitely need other people to keep us human.”

These old gentlemen have certain qualities, Geoffrey thought. Just because they are old doesn’t mean they can’t be powerful.

They have been old men for a long time, which means they have learned many things. Like lying, and being crafty and, most importantly, dissembling.