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Terry Pratchett is Memetic.
Knowledge = Power = Energy = Matter = Mass. A library is just a genteel black hole that can read.
The fact is that camels are far more intelligent than dolphins.*
* Never trust a species that grins all the time. It's up to something.
Rincewind gave his fingers a long shocked stare, as one might regard a gun that has been hanging on the wall for decades and has suddenly gone off and perforated the cat.
Greebo's technique was unscientific and wouldn't have stood a chance against any decent swordmanship, but on his side was the fact that it is almost impossible to develop decent swordmanship when you seem to have run into a food mixer that is biting your ear off.
Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meaning can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad.
Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.
There is a curse.
They say:
May you live in interesting times.
Probably the last sound heard before the Universe folded up like a paper hat would be someone saying, 'What happens if I do this?'
WORDS IN THE HEART CANNOT BE TAKEN -Dorfl
'And there's the sign, Ridcully,' said the Dean. You have read it, I assume. You know? The sign which says "Do not, under any circumstances, open this door"?'
'Of course I've read it,' said Ridcully. 'Why d'yer think I want it opened?'
'Er...why?' said the Lecturer in Recent Runes.
'To see why they wanted it shut, of course.'?
? This exchange contains almost all you need to know about human civilisation. At least, those bits of it that are now under the sea, fenced off or still smoking.
"All right," said Susan, "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need ... fantasies to make life bearable."
No. Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meet the rising ape.
"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers?"
Yes. As practice. You have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
"So we can believe the big ones?"
Yes. Justice. Duty. Mercy. That sort of thing.
"They're not the same at all!"
Really? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet you act, like there was some sort of rightness in the universe by which it may be judged:
"Yes. But people have got to believe that or what's the point?"
My point exactly.
Simple. Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.
What sort of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.
+++ I am sorry. It is hard to convey five-dimensional ideas in a language evolved to scream defiance at the monkeys in the next tree. +++
'Collecting was enormous popular among the English of this century. Bones, shells, butterflies, birds, other people's countries...'
