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. . . .

“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.

Us witches don’t mourn for very long. We are satisfied with happy memories—they’re there to be cherished.”

Witches know that people die; and if they manages to die after a long time, leavin’ the world better than they went an’ found it, well then, that’s surely a reason to be happy.

It was never easy being a witch. Oh, the broomstick was great, but to be a witch you needed to be sensible, so sensible that sometimes it hurt. You dealt with the reality—not what people wanted.

So many people never seemed to think about the consequences of their everyday actions. And then a witch on her broom would have to set out from her bed in the rain in the dead of night because of “I only” and its little friends “I didn’t know” and “It’s not my fault.”

Just do the work you find in front of you and enjoy yourself.

After all, you are both still young, so you still have options for the future.

When Geoffrey’s not anxious, he radiates calmness, which probably means he sees more things and finds more things than other people do. It makes him open to new things too. Yes, it’s a knack all right.

“somebody had to taste the first snail.”

goblins were treated as nobodies until somebody gave a thought to them.

It was wild, it was exhilarating, it was almost getting killed—and the almost bit is what made it something they would feel able to talk about later, though clearly getting killed would shut up most people.

There is a saying, ‘What goes around comes around,’ and it means that sooner or later you will find yourself on top, at least for a while. And another time, the wheel turns and you will not be on top but you have to put up with it.”

She knew how the memory plays tricks, and the old stories had power, and everyone forgot how “terrific” really meant “brings terror.”

I remember Esme tellin’ me once, she was in some hamlet or other—Spickle, Spackle, somewhere like that—and people was tryin’ to string up this man for killin’ two children and she said as he knew he deserved it; ’pparently ’e said, ‘I did it in liquor and it ended in ’emp.’”

“The wizards call it empathy. That means putting yourself in the place of the other person and seeing the world from their point of view. I suppose it’s because in the very olden days, when humans had to fight for themselves every day, they needed to find people who would fight with them too, and together we lived—yes, and prospered. Humans need other humans—it’s as simple as that.”

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