Jerzy

“Child,” said the Sand-fairy sleepily, “I can only advise you to think before you speak” –
“But I thought that you never give advice.”
“That piece doesn’t count,” it said. “You’ll never take it! Besides, it’s not original. It’s in all the copy-books.”
― E. Nesbit, Five Children and It

“When confronted with their fruitless ways, binge writers often proffer a self-defeating dispositional attribution: "I'm just not the kind of person who's good at making a schedule and sticking to it." This is nonsense, of course. People like dispositional explanations when they don't want to change [...]”
― Paul J. Silvia, How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing

“History was full of the bones of good men who'd followed bad orders in the hope that they could soften the blow. Oh, yes, there were worse things they could do, but most of them began right where they started following bad orders.”
― Terry Pratchett, Jingo

“Just as Om reached out his hand to save the prophet Brutha from torture, so will he spread his wings over me in my time of trial," said Oats, but he sounded as though he was trying to reassure himself rather than Nanny. He went on: "I've got a pamphlet if you would like to know more," and this time the tone was much more positive, as if the existence of Om was a little uncertain whereas the existence of pamphlets was obvious to any open-minded, rational-thinking person.”
― Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum