Twitter Thread: Terry Pratchett Quotes Full Of Astute Social Commentary

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Ada Elder
Jun 28, 2020 3:00 PM EDT

It's been just over five years since we lost the great humorist and fantasy writer Terry Pratchett. The English novelist succumbed to Alzheimer's just over forty years after his first book was published - but his wisdom, wit, and social commentary render his incredible brain more relevant than ever. Twitter user @TheOperaGeek provided the site with ample proof of this in a very long Twitter thread that is comprised of quotes from his Discworld books.

Pratchett's Discworld imagines a flat planet (don't get any ideas, flat-earthers) that sits on the back of four elephants - who are standing on the back of a giant turtle. The books uses fantastical themes to create satirical parallels with real-life problems such as policing, white collar crime, and socio-economic disparities. The quotes that @TheOperaGeek uses focuses on all of the above, and relate to the many injustices that are being addressed in protests today. We've included some of the most moving and astute Discworld tidbits, but there's much more to be seen on Kelli's thread. It's all a great reminder of what a special person Terry Pratchett was, and makes us wonder what he'd have to say about the state of the world.

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  • 01
    Text - Kelli #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "There were times when the world did not need policemen, because what it really did need was for somebody who knew what they were doing to shut it all down and start it all up again so that THIS time it could be done properly." - Terry Pratchett, Snuff #Discworld
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 02
    Text - Kelli #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "...but what should we do when the highborn and wealthy take to crime? Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger, how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man who breaks the law out of greed?" - Terry Pratchett, Snuff 7:39 PM · 6/8/20 · Twitter for Android
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 03
    Text - Kelli #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "I'm not a natural killer! See this? See what it says? I'm supposed to KEEP the peace, I am! If I kill people to do it, I'm reading the wrong manual!" - Watch Commander Sam Vimes on policing (Terry Pratchett, Jingo) 7:43 PM · 6/8/20 · Twitter for Android
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 04
    Text - Kelli #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "He asked you to shoot at people who weren't shooting back," growled Vimes, striding forward. [...] "They are throwing STONES, Sarge," said Colon. "So? Stay out of range. They'll get tired before we do." " -Sam Vimes on policing, again. (Terry Pratchett, Night Watch) 7:49 PM 6/8/20 Twitter for Android
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 05
    Text - Kelli #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "No excuses. No excuses at all. Once you had a good excuse, you opened the door to bad excuses." - Terry Pratchett, THUD! #Discworld 7:52 PM · 6/8/20 · Twitter for Android
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 06
    Text - Kelli.- #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "And if you did it for a good reason, you'd do it for a bad one. You couldn't say "we're the good guys" and do bad-guy things." - Vimes on policing & excuses, part three. (Terry Pratchett, THUD!) #Discworld
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 07
    Text - Kelli. #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "For the enemy is not Troll, nor it is Dwarf, but it is the baleful, the malign, the cowardly, the vessels of hatred, those who do a bad thing and call it good." -Terry Pratchett, THUD! #Discworld 7:55 PM · 6/8/20 · Twitter for Android
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 08
    Text - Kelli. #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless and terrible. But this much I can tell you, we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality." - The Dragon on human nature, part two (Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards) 8:03 PM · 6/8/20· Twitter for Android >
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 09
    Text - Kelli. #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "There were people who'd steal money from people. Fair enough. That was just theft. But there were people who, with one easy word, would steal the humanity from people. That was something else." - Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms #Discworld 8:05 PM · 6/8/20 · Twitter for Android
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 10
    Text - Kelli. #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "And, while it was regarded as pretty good evidence of criminality to be living in a slum, for SOME reason owning a whole street of them merely got you invited to the very best social occasions." - Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay 8:07 PM · 6/8/20 · Twitter for Android
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 11
    Text - Kelli #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "You couldn't say 'I had orders.' You couldn't say 'It's not fair.' No one was listening. There were no Words. You owned yourself. [….] Not 'Thou Shalt Not'. Say 'I WILL NOT!." -Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay 8:09 PM · 6/8/20 Twitter for Android
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 12
    Text - Kelli #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "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 #Discworld 9:26 PM 6/8/20 · Twitter for Android >
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 13
    Text - Kelli #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "..tomorrow the sun will come up again, & l'm pretty sure that whatever happens we won't have found Freedom, & there won't be a whole lot of Justice, & I'm damn sure we won't have found Truth. But it's possible that I might get a hard- boiled egg. -Terry Pratchett, Night Watch 9:26 PM · 6/8/20 · Twitter for Android
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 14
    Text - Kelli. #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "That's the way it was. Privilege, which just means 'private law.' Two types of people laugh at the law; those that break it and those that make it." - Terry Pratchett, Night Watch 9:26 PM · 6/8/20 · Twitter for Android
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 15
    Text - Kelli. #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "Goodness is about what you do. Not who you pray to. And the worst thing you can do is nothing." - Terry Pratchett, Snuff 9:27 PM · 6/8/20 · Twitter for Android
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 16
    Text - Kelli- #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "Cheery was aware that Commander Vimes didn't like the phrase 'The innocent have nothing to fear', believing the innocent had everything to fear, mostly from the guilty but EVEN MORE from those who say things like 'The innocent have nothing to fear'!." - Terry Pratchett, Snuff 9:28 PM · 6/8/20 · Twitter for Android
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 17
    Text - Kelli #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek .. you were so worried about legal and illegal that you never stopped to think about whether it was right or wrong." - Terry Pratchett, Snuff 9:29 PM · 6/8/20 · Twitter for Android
    via @TheOperaGeek
  • 18
    Text - 1:421 令 Thread Kelli #OperaGeek @TheOperaGeek "I tell you, commander, it's true that some of the most terrible things in the world are done by people who think, genuinely think, that they're doing it for the best, especially if there is some god involved." - Terry Pratchett, Snuff 7:20 PM - 6/12/20 - Twitter Web App 20 Retweets 93 Likes Kelli #OperaGeek @The. - 6/12/20 v Replying to @TheOperaGeek This describes the entire Trump administration. Full. Stop. "You're just a bully who found it
    via @TheOperaGeek

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