Terry Pratchett Quotes

Zeus it seems has given us from youth to old age a nice ball of wool to wind-nothing but wars upon wars until we shall perish every one.

How I have tried and tried to be a splendid woman, and how destiny has been against me! ...I do not deserve my lot! ...O, the cruelty of putting me into this ill-conceived world! I was capable of much; but I have been injured and blighted and crushed by things beyond my control! O, how hard it is of Heaven to devise such tortures for me, who have done no harm to heaven at all!

That is the gods' work, spinning threads of death through the lives of mortal men, an all to make a song for those to come.

Believe me, the gods spare the afflicted, and do not always oppress those who are unfortunate.

the wheel of fate crushes us all

Tragedy is the highest form of art.

Everythin' seems ter happen ter you, doesn' it?

Thus have the gods spun the thread for wretched mortals: that they live in grief while they themselves are without cares; for two jars stand on the floor of Zeus of the gifts which he gives, one of evils and another of blessings.

For every mother who ever cursed God for her child dead in the road, for every father who ever cursed the man who sent him away from the factory with no job, for every child who was ever born to pain and asked why, this is the answer. Our lives are like these things I build. Sometimes they fall down for a reason, sometimes they fall down for no reason at all.

Some people seem to be born to suffer.

The lucky ones are just born dead.

Fate finds for every man; his share of misery.

God does not cause our misfortunes. Some are caused by bad luck, some are caused by bad people, and some are simply an inevitable consequence of our being human and being mortal. living in a world of inflexible natural laws. The painful things that happen to us are not punishments for our misbehavior, nor are they in any way part of some grand design on God's part. Because the tragedy is not God's will, we need not feel hurt or betrayed by God when tragedy strikes. We can turn to Him for help in overcoming it, precisely because we can tell ourselves that God is as outraged by it as we are.

People invent gods to explain their suffering.

the best people have the rottenest luck

Sometimes really, really bad things happen to people, and there is no explanation and no reason whatsoever.

... one of the immutable laws of being human is that the people who show up are the right people. [p. 65]

If you want the whole thing, the gods will give it to you. But you must be ready for it.

Some would assert that Providence was at work shaking out its pockets in Humanity's lap. Other would argue for that mindless choreographer, Chance. Either way it was a simple thing: a lost diary fell into the hands of a soul-sick war hero on a train from Bombay to Jaipur just when he'd grown tired of the scenery and needed something to keep his thoughts from the minefield of his wretched thoughts. In such mild ways is the groundwork laid for first kisses and ruined lives.

The bitter dregs of Fortune's cup to drain.

But really, there are no coincidences. Coincidences are just other people's choices, plans you don't know about.

It's disgraceful how these humans blame the gods. They say their tribulations come from us, when they themselves, through their own foolishness, bring hardships which are not decreed by Fate.