Small Gods - Tumblr Posts
“I was told it was the finest thing to die for a god,” he mumbled.
“Vorbis said that. And he was... stupid. You can die for your country or your people or your family, but for a god you should live fully and busily, every day of a long life.”
-Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods
“Life in this world,” Didactylos said, “is, as it were, a sojourn in a cave. What can we know of reality?
For all we see of the true nature of existence is, shall we say, no more than bewildering and amusing shadows cast upon the inner wall of the cave by the unseen blinding light of absolute truth, from which we may or may not deduce some glimmer of veracity, and we as troglodyte seekers of wisdom can only lift our voices to the unseen and say, humbly,
‘Go on, do Deformed Rabbit... it’s my favorite.’”
-Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods
“‘[They’re] here. With you.’
‘I can’t see them!’
Death gathered up the reins.
‘Nevertheless,’ he said. His horse trotted forward a few steps.
‘I don’t understand!’ screamed Vorbis.
Death paused. ‘You have perhaps heard the phrase,’ he said, ‘that Hell is other people?’
‘Yes. Yes, of course.’
Death nodded. ‘In time,’ he said, ‘you will learn that it is wrong.’”
-Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods
“‘Still, we live and learn, that’s what I always say.’ [Didactylos] turned to face the soldier. ‘Kicking and screaming.’”
-Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
“We are here and it is now. The way I see it is, after that, everything tends towards guesswork.”
-Didactylos, in Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods
“They weren’t that important. They were merely at the top. The people who really run organizations are usually found several levels down, where it’s still possible to get things done.”
-Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods
“There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal, kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.”
-Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERRY PRATCHETT!
"Fear is a strange soil. It grows obedience like corn, which grow in straight lines to make weeding easier. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground."
- Terry Pratchett 'Small Gods'
I somehow never see this quoted when people talk about Terry going loud with the commentary
Yeah I'd read that alternate reality version of Small Gods. Probably in a world where Ankh-Morpork is heavily Omnian, given the hippo
Fascinating, I had no idea. The connections grow...
Time is a drug. Too much of it kills you.
Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
Bishops move diagonally. That's why they often turn up where the kings don't expect them to be.
Small Gods; Terry Pratchett
Just because you can explain it doesn’t mean it’s not still a miracle.
Small Gods; Terry Pratchett
“Om began to feel the acute depression that steals over every realist in the presence of an optimist.”
— Terry Pratchett - Small Gods
“Last night there seemed to be a chance. Anything was possible last night. That was the trouble with last nights. They were always followed by this mornings.”
— Terry Pratchett - Small Gods
“You can’t inspire people with facts. They need a cause. They need a symbol.”
- Terry Pratchett - Small Gods
What Brutha had thought was a rock in the sand was a hunched figure, sitting clutching its knees. It looked paralyzed with fear.
He stared.
"Vorbis?" he said.
He looked at Death.
"But Vorbis died a hundred years ago!"
YES. HE HAD TO WALK IT ALL ALONE. ALL ALONE WITH HIMSELF. IF HE DARED.
[...] The black-on-black eyes stared imploringly at Brutha, who reached out automatically, without thinking...and then he hesitated.
HE WAS A MURDERER, said Death. AND A CREATOR OF MURDERERS. A TORTURER. WITHOUT PASSION. CRUEL. CALLOUS. COMPASSIONLESS.
"Yes. I know. He's Vorbis," said Brutha. Vorbis changed people. Sometimes he changed them into dead people. But he always changed them. That was his triumph.
He sighed.
"But I'm me," he said.
Vorbis stood up, uncertainly, and followed Brutha across the desert.
Death watched them walk away.
Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
C’mere, kid. I want to tell you a secret.
Whoa, whoa, not like that! This isn’t one of those “strange man tells you something that you’re not supposed to share with your parents” situations. I want you to share this with your parents. I want you to share this with the whole world. You wanna be my prophet, you go right ahead. It’s not like most folks are gonna listen, but every so often, one of you people decides to try, and I’m always grateful, even if I don’t think there’s any point to it.
Okay. You with me? You listening? You cleaned your ears out recently? Because if you’re gonna be my prophet, I don’t want you to go around telling people I said something I didn’t. That’s happened to so many of my friends. They lay out one message, and folks pick it up and turn it into something terrible, into some sort of cudgel to beat people with. And that’s not what I’m about.
Okay. You’re good? Then here you go. This is the secret, this is the essential thing I wish you over-important primates would hammer through your heads, this is what matters:
People are essentially good, and essentially the same, everywhere you go. Optimism isn’t shallow, and being a happy person doesn’t make you a fool. You’re allowed to irrigate and plant flowers in your heart. That won’t make you weak. It won’t make you irresponsible, or petty. Be joyous. Find your light and nurture it, and once it’s strong and healthy enough to light up your room, open the windows and share it with the people around you.
There’s a lot of shadow in a lot of folks. A little light can help to beat it back, and can bring us a better world. All of us, not just the divine, and not just the damned.
Do your part, prophet or no. Nurture and protect your joy.