Currently reading Men at Arms and Terry Pratchett is, as usual, scarily precise and ever current, in his observation of reality:
The axiom "honest men have nothing to fear from the police" is currently under review by the Axioms Appeal Board"
#Discworld #TerryPratchett #MenatArms
“And you’re a wolf and human at the same time, right? Tricky, that. I can see that. Bit of a dichotomy, sort of thing. Makes you kind of like a dog. ’Cos that’s what a dog is, really. Half a wolf and half a human. You were right about that. We’ve even got names. Hah! So our bodies tell us one thing, our heads tell us another. It’s a dog’s life, being a dog. And I bet you can’t run away from him. Not really. He’s your master.”
-from Men at Arms
#quote #Discworld #TerryPratchett #MenatArms
Someone get that frog a hard boiled egg because; truth and justice
#pterry #menatarms #TeryPratchett
An excerpt from Terry Pratchett’s Men At Arms: “Yes? And then what? Royalty pollutes people’s minds, boy. Honest men start bowing and bobbing just because someone’s granddad was a bigger murdering bastard than theirs was. Listen! We probably had good kings, once! But kings breed other kings! And blood tells, and you end up with a bunch of arrogant murdering bastards! Chopping off queens’ heads and fighting their cousins every five minutes! And we had centuries of that! And then one day a man said, ‘No more kings!’ And we rose up and we fought the bloody nobles and we dragged the king of his throne and we dragged him into Sator Square and we chopped his bloody head off! Job well done!
Up to Men at Arms in my Discworld read through. Everyone knows Vimes “Boots” theory, but he had a lot to say about kings too.
#discworld #menatarms #terrypratchett
“Probably fighting up in Quarry Lane with the rest of them,” said Quirke. “You can’t trust people of their type. You ought to know that.” And it also seemed to Angua that although words like halfpint and gritsucker were offensive, they were as terms of universal brotherhood compared to words like “people of their type” in the mouth of men like Quirke. Much to her shock, she found her gaze concentrating on the man’s jugular vein.
-from Men at Arms
#quote #Discworld #TerryPratchett #MenatArms #Quirke #Angua
“That’s the whole mess about being a dog, see?” he said. “That’s the thing what Big Fido can’t get his mind around, see? You looked at the dogs in the Guild, right? You heard ’em howl. Oh, yes, Death To The Humans, All Right. But under all that there’s the fear. There’s the voice sayin’: Bad Dog. And it don’t come from anywhere but inside, right from inside the bones, ’cos humans made dogs. I knows this. I wish I didn’t, but there it is. That’s the Power, knowin’. I’ve read books, I have. Well, chewed books.” The darkness was silent. “And you’re a wolf and human at the same time, right? Tricky, that. I can see that. Bit of a dichotomy, sort of thing. Makes you kind of like a dog. ’Cos that’s what a dog is, really. Half a wolf and half a human. You were right about that. We’ve even got names. Hah! So our bodies tell us one thing, our heads tell us another. It’s a dog’s life, being a dog. And I bet you can’t run away from him. Not really. He’s your master.”
"So many crimes are solved by a happy accident - by the random stopping of a car, by an overheard remark, by someone of the right nationality happening to be within five miles of the scene of the crime without an alibi..." #MenAtArms #TerryPratchett
So the rumours are true. Big Fido is alive and leading a wolf pack.
#discworld #menatarms
'Personal isn't the same as important.'
#MenAtArms #TerryPratchett
#Discworld
Through most of the book Lady Sybil just doesn’t get what makes Sam tick, tries to make him into a “gentleman”; but she comes around in the final scene when Carrot comes over to fill him in
#menatarms #Discworld #pratchett #samvimes #ankhmorpork
Reading Men at Arms right now. I like how Carrot is fleshed out as a leader, but it saddens me how Vimes falls off the wagon and is effectively MIA as Carrot saves the day. #menatarms #Discworld #pratchett #samvimes #ankhmorpork
*Suicide, for example Murder was in fact a fairly uncommon event in Ankh-Morpork, but there were a lot of suicides. Walking in the night-time alleyways of The Shades was suicide. Asking for a short in a dwarf bar was suicide. Saying “Got rocks in your head?” to a troll was suicide. You could commit suicide very easily, if you weren’t careful.
-from Men at Arms
#quote #TerryPratchett #Discworld #MenatArms
“Ha’nt got an’ting t’throw,” said Cuddy. “I have,” said Detritus, scooping him up. “Do not worry. I can compute your trajectory with astonishing precision. And then all you will need to do is fetch Captain Vimes or Carrot or someone.” Cuddy’s feeble protests described an arc through the freezing air and vanished along with the window glass.
-from Men at Arms
#quote #Discworld #TerryPratchett #MenatArms
Carrot said, “It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness, captain. That’s what they say.”
-from Men at Arms
#quote #Discworld #TerryPratchett #MenatArms #inspirationalquote #Carrot #candle #darkness
“That’s the whole mess about being a dog, see?” he said. “That’s the thing what Big Fido can’t get his mind around, see? You looked at the dogs in the Guild, right? You heard ’em howl. Oh, yes, Death To The Humans, All Right. But under all that there’s the fear. There’s the voice sayin’: Bad Dog. And it don’t come from anywhere but inside, right from inside the bones, ’cos humans made dogs. I knows this. I wish I didn’t, but there it is. That’s the Power, knowin’. I’ve read books, I have. Well, chewed books.”
-from Men at Arms
#quote #Discworld #TerryPratchett #MenatArms #Gaspode
Vimes felt quite light-hearted as he walked up Scoone Avenue. He was aware that there was an inner Vimes screaming his head off. He ignored him. You couldn’t be a real copper in Ankh-Morpork and stay sane. You had to care. And caring in Ankh-Morpork was like opening a tin of meat in the middle of a piranha school. Everyone dealt with it in their own way. Colon never thought about it, and Nobby didn’t worry about it, and the new ones hadn’t been in long enough to be worn down by it, and Carrot…was just himself. Hundreds of people died in the city every day, often of suicide. So what did a few more matter? The Vimes inside hammered on the walls.
- from Men at Arms
#quote #Discworld #TerryPratchett #MenatArms
"He wasn't actually bad...he dealt more in that generalised low grade unpleasantness which slightly tarnishes the soul of all who come into contact with it"
"Rather like british rail"
#MenatArms #Discworld
Dogs are not like cats, who amusingly tolerate humans only until someone comes up with a tin opener that can be operated with a paw. Men made dogs, they took wolves and gave them human things—unnecessary intelligence, names, a desire to belong, and a twitching inferiority complex. All dogs dream wolf dreams, and know they’re dreaming of biting their Maker. Every dog knows, deep in his heart, that he is a Bad Dog…
-from Men at Arms
#quote #Discworld #TerryPratchett #MenatArms
Morella reviews Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett, book 15 of the Discworld series. www.douxreviews.com/2025/07/men-... #discworld #terrypratchett #bookreview #menatarms
Our Terry Pratchett quote of this particular day, because it's always good to be reminded of Vimes' 'boots' theory of socio-economic unfairness
#gnuterrypratchett #discworld #menatarms
The chances of a human eating anything off Dibbler’s barrow unless it was stamped flat and pushed under the door after two weeks on a starvation diet was, by now, remote.
-Men at Arms
#quote #Discworld #TerryPratchett #MenAtArms
“For several years he hadn't moved outside a large, airy room, but this was OK, because he spent most of his time inside his own head in any case. There's a certain type of person it's very hard to imprison.”
#TerryPratchett #MenAtArms
“Have - have you got an appointment?' he said.
'I don't know,' said Carrot. 'Have we got an appointment?'
'I've got an iron ball with spikes on,' Nobby volunteered.
'That's a morningstar, Nobby.'
'Is it?'
#MenAtArms
#Discworld
#Pratchett
On the other hand, trolls were basically, when you got right down to it, no offense meant, speak as you find…basically, they were walking rocks.
-Men at Arms
#quote #Discworld #TerryPratchett #MenAtArms
Book 24 of 2025 is another reread but when it's a classic from the master Sir Terry who can blame me?! 🙌🏼 I think this may actually be my favourite of the #Discworld series! 5 🌟📚 #terrypratchett #booksky #menatarms #2025reads
“We are armed with the truth. What can harm us if we are armed with the truth?’ ‘Well, a crossbow bolt can, e.g., go right through your eye and out the back of your head,’ said Sergeant Colon.”
#TerryPratchett #MenAtArms
“We’re just holding his funeral,” said the little clown. “That’s why my trousers are at half-mast.”
-Boffo the Clown, Men at Arms
#quote #Discworld #TerryPratchett #MenAtArms #BoffotheClown
“SIT!” said Gaspode, in passable Human. The command bounced back and forth around the alley, and fifty percent of the animals obeyed. In most cases, it was the hind fifty percent. Dogs in mid-spring found their treacherous legs coiling under them— “BAD DOG!” —and this was followed by an overpowering sense of racial shame that made them cringe automatically, a bad move in mid-air.
-from Men at Arms
#quote #Discworld #TerryPratchett #MenatArms #Gaspode
