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“Book! You lie there; the fact is, you books must know your places. You'll do to give us the bare words and facts, but we come in to supply the thoughts.”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale

“People believe, thought Shadow. It’s what people do. They believe. And then they will not take responsibility for their beliefs; they conjure things, and do not trust the conjurations. People populate the darkness; with ghosts, with gods, with electrons, with tales. People imagine, and people believe: and it is that belief, that rock-solid belief, that makes things happen.”
― Neil Gaiman, American Gods

“As soon as he seized happiness it dispersed and reappeared somewhere else. Like Fillory, like everything good, it never lasted. What a terrible thing to know.”
― Lev Grossman, The Magicians

“William pouts irritably. Socialism is not the same thing as letting one’s servants muddle towards anarchy. But never mind, never mind: on a day like today, it’s not worth worrying over. Soon the servant question, at least in William Rackham’s household, will be resolved beyond any ambiguity.”
― Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White

“He had never seen fly-fishing like this before. There were wet flies, and there were dry flies, but this fly augured into the water with a saw-toothed whine and dragged the fish out backwards.”
― Terry Pratchett, Mort

“a key to the understanding of all religion is that a god’s idea of amusement is Snakes and Ladders with greased rungs.”
― Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

“I mean, we think we believe that the gods are wise and just and powerful, but what we really believe is that they are like our father after a long day.”
― Terry Pratchett, Pyramids

“Most people think in curves and zig-zags. For example, they start from a thought like: I wonder how I can become very rich, and then proceed along an uncertain course which includes thoughts like: I wonder what’s for supper, and: I wonder who I know who can lend me five dollars?”
― Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures

“Was that what it was really like to be alive? The feeling of darkness dragging you forward? How could they live with it? And yet they did, and even seemed to find enjoyment in it, when surely the only sensible course would be to despair. Amazing. To feel you were a tiny living thing, sandwiched between two cliffs of darkness. How could they stand to be alive?”
― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

“Then Magrat, who in Nanny Ogg’s opinion had an innocent talent for treading on dangerous ground, said: “I wonder if we did the right thing? I’m sure it was a job for a handsome prince.” “Hah!” said Granny, who was riding ahead. “And what good would that be? Cutting your way through a bit of bramble is how you can tell he’s going to be a good husband, is it? That’s fairy godmotherly thinking, that is! Goin’ around inflicting happy endings on people whether they wants them or not, eh?”
― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

“But a human mind is a great sullen lightning-filled cloud of thoughts, all of them occupying a finite amount of brain processing time. Finding whatever the owner thinks they’re thinking in the middle of the smog of prejudices, memories, worries, hopes and fears is almost impossible.”
― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

“Well, I suppose there’s no place like home,” she said. “No,” said Granny Weatherwax, still looking thoughtful. “No. There’s a billion places like home. But only one of ’em’s where you live.”
― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

“You couldn’t put off the inevitable. Because sooner or later, you reached the place when the inevitable just went and waited.”
― Terry Pratchett, Small Gods

“What the gods said was heard by each combatant in his own language, and according to his own understanding. It boiled down to: I. This is Not a Game. II. Here and Now, You are Alive.”
― Terry Pratchett, Small Gods

“Some people might say this is important.” “No. It’s just personal. Personal’s not the same as important. People just think it is.”
― Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies

“I’ve brought you some camomile tea, sir,” said Albert. HMM? “Sir?” SORRY. I WAS THINKING. WHAT WAS IT YOU SAID? “Camomile tea?” I THOUGHT THAT WAS A KIND OF SOAP? “You can put it in soap or tea, sir,” said Albert. He was worried. He was always worried when Death started to think about things. It was the wrong job for thinking about things. And he thought about them in the wrong way.”
― Terry Pratchett, Soul Music

“I swore I’d be the most famous musician in the world.” “Dat’s dangerous, dat kinda swear,” said Cliff. “Oook.” “Isn’t it what every artist wants?” said Buddy. “In my experience,” said Glod, “what every true artist wants, really wants, is to be paid.” “And famous,” said Buddy. “Famous I don’t know about,” said Glod. “It’s hard to be famous and alive. I just want to play music every day and hear someone say, ‘Thanks, that was great, here is some money, same time tomorrow, okay?”
― Terry Pratchett, Soul Music

“There is something very sad about an empty dressing room. It’s like a discarded pair of underpants, which it resembles in a number of respects. It’s seen a lot of activity. It may even have witnessed excitement and a whole gamut of human passions. And now there’s nothing much left but a faint smell.”
― Terry Pratchett, Soul Music

“Adventure! People talked about the idea as if it were something worthwhile, rather than a mess of bad food, no sleep and strange people inexplicably trying to stick pointed objects in bits of you.”
― Terry Pratchett

“These little eccentricities on my grandfather’s part implied no ill-will whatsoever towards my friends. But Bloch had displeased my family for other reasons. He had begun by annoying my father, who, seeing him come in with wet clothes, had asked him with keen interest: “Why, M. Bloch, is there a change in the weather; has it been raining? I can’t understand it; the barometer has been ‘set fair.’” Which drew from Bloch nothing more instructive than “Sir, I am absolutely incapable of telling you whether it has rained. I live so resolutely apart from physical contingencies that my senses no longer trouble to inform me of them.” “My poor boy,” said my father after Bloch had gone, “your friend is out of his mind. Why, he couldn’t even tell me what the weather was like. As if there could be anything more interesting! He is an imbecile.”
― Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time [volumes 1 to 7]

“The Cheerful Fairy was quite short and plump in a tweed skirt and shoes so sensible they could do their own tax returns, and was pretty much like the first teacher you get at school, the one who has special training in dealing with nervous incontinence and little boys whose contribution to the wonderful world of sharing consists largely of hitting a small girl repeatedly over the head with a wooden horse. In fact, this picture was helped by the whistle on a string around her neck and a general impression that at any moment she would clap her hands. The tiny gauzy wings just visible on her back were probably just for show, but the wizards kept on staring at her shoulder.”
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

“What a strange thing to have happen,” he thought (just as you must be thinking right now). “This game is much more serious than I thought, for here I am riding on a road I’ve never seen, going to a place I’ve never heard of, and all because of a tollbooth which came from nowhere. I’m certainly glad that it’s a nice day for a trip,” he concluded hopefully, for, at the moment, this was the one thing he definitely knew.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“It was a dog. Or several dogs rolled, as it were, into one. There were four legs, and they were nearly all the same length although not, Agnes noted, all the same color. There was one head, although the left ear was black and pointed while the right ear was brown and white and flopped. It was a very enthusiastic animal in the department of slobber. “Thith ith Thcrapth,” said Igor, fighting to get to his feet in a hail of excited paws. “He’th a thilly old thing.” “Scraps…yes,” said Nanny. “Good name. Good name.” “He’th theventy-eight yearth old,” said Igor, leading the way down a winding staircase. “Thome of him.”
― Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum

“No one would be that stu—” Susan stopped. Of course someone would be that stupid. 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

“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”
― Terry Pratchett, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

“Everyone found their eyes turning toward Adam. He seemed to be thinking very carefully. Then he said: “I don’t see why it matters what is written. Not when it’s about people. It can always be crossed out.”
― Terry Pratchett, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

“and I am a great proponent of better. In the absence of best. Which is how we live now.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Testaments

“had a little trouble with the left T-shirt sleeve—something caught on the O.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Testaments

“Of course, I was made aware that somebody’s race mattered, and if race was discussed, it would be theirs, not mine.”
― Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

“MAGIC HAND-FUDGE—WHEN YOU HOLD IT IN YOUR HAND, YOU TASTE IT IN YOUR MOUTH.”
― Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory