The quotations of

Terry Pratchett

English fantasy author

1948–2015

13 quotes, most often on Comedy, Thinking and Science.

Science is not about building a body of known ‘facts’. It is a method for asking awkward questions and subjecting them to a reality-check, thus avoiding the human tendency to believe whatever makes us feel good.
- Science
I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
- Thinking
Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.
Wyrd Sisters (1988)
- Freedom
- Work
Everything makes sense a bit at a time. But when you try to think of it all at once, it comes out wrong.
Only You Can Save Mankind (1992)
- Thinking
It is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you’re attempting can’t be done.
Equal Rites (1987)
- Success
Never trust any complicated cocktail that remains perfectly clear until the last ingredient goes in, and then immediately clouds.
alt.fan.pratchett (22 November 1993)
- Advice
- Comedy
I don’t think I’ve found God, but I may have seen where gods come from.
“I create gods all the time—now I think one might exist” (2008)
- God
- Religion
I don’t have much truck with the “religion is the cause of most of our wars” school of thought because that is manifestly done by mad, manipulative and power-hungry men who cloak their ambition in God.
“I create gods all the time—now I think one might exist” (2008)
- Religion
- War & Peace
Imagination, not intelligence, made us human.
Foreword to The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1998) by David Pringle, and The Definitive Illustrated Guide to Fantasy (2003) by David Pringle
- Intelligence
Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.
Foreword to The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1998) by David Pringle, and The Definitive Illustrated Guide to Fantasy (2003) by David Pringle
- Clever Jabs
- Writing
When they’re standing right in front of you, kings are a kind of speech impediment.
The Carpet People (1971; 1992)
- Comedy
- Power
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
Diggers (1990)
- Comedy
- Thinking
As they say in Discworld, we are trying to unravel the Mighty Infinite using a language which was designed to tell one another where the fresh fruit was.
Relatively Einstein episode 3, “Fantasy Physics” (18 January 2005); the Discworld version of this statement appears in Night Watch (2002)
- Science
- Talking

Most quoted

People A to Z

C. S. Lewis1898–1963151 quotes

Mark Twain1835–1910151 quotes

Benjamin Franklin1706–179098 quotes

Martin Luther King Jr.1929–196884 quotes

Albert Einstein1879–195595 quotes

Dave Barryborn 1947100 quotes