I Shall Wear Midnight Quotes

“Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“She heard him mutter, 'Can you take away this grief?'
'I'm sorry,' she replied. 'Everyone asks me. And I would not do so even if I knew how. It belongs to you. Only time and tears take away grief; that is what they are for.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“There is a lot of folklore about equestrian statues, especially the ones with riders on them. There is said to be a code in the number and placement of the horse's hooves: If one of the horse's hooves is in the air, the rider was wounded in battle; two legs in the air means that the rider was killed in battle; three legs in the air indicates that the rider got lost on the way to the battle; and four legs in the air means that the sculptor was very, very clever. Five legs in the air means that there's probably at least one other horse standing behind the horse you're looking at; and the rider lying on the ground with his horse lying on top of him with all four legs in the air means that the rider was either a very incompetent horseman or owned a very bad-tempered horse.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“It is important that we know where we come from, because if you do not know where you come from, then you don't know where you are, and if you don't know where you are, you don't know where you're going. And if you don't know where you're going, you're probably going wrong.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“People aren't just people, they are people surrounded by circumstances.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“I should have learned this, she thought. I wanted to learn fire, and pain, but I should have learned people.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“Oh, I feel very angry a lot of the time," said Tiffany, "but I just put it away somewhere until I can do something useful with it.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“There have been times, lately, when I dearly wished that I could change the past. Well, I can’t, but I can change the present, so that when it becomes the past it will turn out to be a past worth having.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“One day I'll work out what it is you are saying, my lad, and then you'll be in trouble.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“If you do not know where you come from, then you don't know where you are, and if you don't know where you are, then you don't know where you're going. And if you don't know where you're going, you're probably going wrong.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“At such times the universe gets a little closer to us. They are strange times, times of beginnings and endings. Dangerous and powerful. And we feel it even if we don't know what it is. These times are not necessarily good, and not necessarily bad. In fact, what they are depends on what *we* are.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“I’m a witch. It’s what we do. When it’s nobody else’s business, it’s my business.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“One day all of us will die but - and this is the important thing - we are not dead yet.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“The sun is simple. A sword is simple. A storm is simple. Behind everything simple is a huge tail of complicated.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“Every step is a first step if it's a step in the right direction.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“When I am old I shall wear midnight.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“They know that people need witches; they need the unofficial people who understand the difference between right and wrong, and when right is
wrong and when wrong is right. The world needs the people who work around the edges. They need the people who can deal with the little bumps and inconveniences. And little problems. After all, we are almost all human. Almost all of the time.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“She had heard it said that, before you could understand anybody, you needed to walk a mile in their shoes, which did not make a whole lot of sense, because probably AFTER you had walked a mile in their shoes, you would understand that they were chasing you and accusing you of the theft of a pair of shoes--although, of course, you could probably outrun them, owing to their lack of footwear.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“I want a proper school, sir, to teach reading and writing, and most of all thinking, sir, so people can find out what they are good at, because someone doing what they really like is always an asset to any country, and too often people never find out until it is too late. There have been times, lately, when I dearly wished that I could change the past. Well, I can't, but I can change the present, so that when it becomes the past it will turn out to be a past worth having....Learning is about finding out who you are, what you are, where you are and what you are standing on and what you are good at and what's over the horizon and, well, everything. Its about finding the place where you fit. I found the place where I fit, and I would like everybody else to find theirs." - Tiffany Aching”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“Balance. It was all about balance. That had been one of the first things that she had learned: the centre of the seesaw has neither up nor down, but upness and downness flow through it while it remains unmoved. You had to be the centre of the seesaw so the pain flowed through you, not into you. It was very hard. But she could do it!”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“These weren't cheap modern books; these were books bound in leather, and not just leather, but leather from clever cows who had given their lives for literature after a happy existence in the very best pastures.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“Letitia! What a name. Halfway between a salad and a sneeze.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“First Sight means you can see what really is there, and Second Thoughts mean thinking about what you are thinking. And in Tiffany's case, there were sometimes Third Thoughts and Fourth Thoughts although these...sometimes led her to walk into doors.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“[Y]ou weren't born with a talent for witchcraft: it didn't come easily; you worked hard at it because you wanted it. You forced the world to give it to you, no matter the price, and the price is and always will be high... People say you don't find witchcraft; witchcraft finds you. But you've found it, even if at the time you didn't know what it was you were finding, and you grabbed it by its scrawny neck and made it work for you.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“If you have let pride get the better of you, then you have already lost, but if you grab pride by the scruff of the neck and ride it like a stallion, then you may have already won.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“Everything is a test.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“Omens are everywhere in this world you just have to find the one that fits.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“I may be daft but I'm no' stupid!”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“Preston, I don't think this creature could ever find its way into your head. Quite apart from anything else, it seems pretty crowded and complicated to me.”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

“Well, child? Aren't you going to try to turn me into some kind of unspeakable creature?

I don't think I shall bother, madam, seeing as you are making such a good job of it yourself!”
― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight