{
  "type": "quote",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards/they-may-be-called",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards/they-may-be-called.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards/they-may-be-called.md",
  "id": "e95da499-103a-4f97-81ac-386209751589",
  "slug": "they-may-be-called",
  "text": "They may be called the Palace Guard, the City Guard, or the Patrol. Whatever the name, their purpose in any work of heroic fantasy is identical: it is, round about Chapter Three (or ten minutes into the film) to rush into the room, attack the hero one at a time, and be slaughtered. No one ever asks them if they want to. This book is dedicated to those fine men. (Dedication)",
  "language": "en",
  "author": {
    "name": "Terry Pratchett",
    "slug": "terry-pratchett",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett"
  },
  "book": {
    "title": "Guards! Guards!",
    "slug": "guards-guards",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards"
  },
  "character": null,
  "chapter": null,
  "chapter_parent": null,
  "page": null,
  "verified": false,
  "original": null,
  "other_languages": [],
  "topics": [
    {
      "name": "humor",
      "slug": "humor",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor"
    }
  ],
  "source": {
    "name": "Wikiquote",
    "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guards!_Guards!#Quotes",
    "license": {
      "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
      "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
    }
  },
  "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:55",
  "more_from_book": [
    {
      "id": "d9d65a90-f853-411c-9a86-0c9e6725a443",
      "slug": "down-there-he-said",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards/down-there-he-said",
      "text": "\"Down there,\" he said, \"are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any iniquity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathesomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don't say no.\" (p. 337)",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "evil",
          "slug": "evil",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil"
        },
        {
          "name": "sin",
          "slug": "sin",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sin"
        },
        {
          "name": "indifference",
          "slug": "indifference",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/indifference"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guards!_Guards!#Quotes",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:56"
    },
    {
      "id": "aa92d33e-ee4f-403c-8d6a-6032d0e9e83b",
      "slug": "no-one-knows",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards/no-one-knows",
      "text": "'No one knows how to do officering, Fred. That's why they're officers. If they'd knew anything, they'd be sergeants.'",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "humor",
          "slug": "humor",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guards!_Guards!#Quotes",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:56"
    },
    {
      "id": "79803f17-7001-4005-ad3e-017deb61d362",
      "slug": "each-man-thought",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards/each-man-thought",
      "text": "Each man thought: one of the others is bound to say something soon, some protest, and then I'll murmur agreement, not actually say anything, I'm not as stupid as that, but definitely murmur very firmly, so that the others will be in no doubt that I thoroughly disapprove, because at a time like this it behooves all decent men to nearly stand up and be almost heard… But no one said anything. The cowards, each man thought.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "conformity",
          "slug": "conformity",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity"
        },
        {
          "name": "cowardice",
          "slug": "cowardice",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cowardice"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guards!_Guards!#Quotes",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:56"
    }
  ]
}
