But he felt pleased. The Grandfathers didn’t wake up. The noise he had heard as a boy was just papervine… — Terry Pratchett
But he felt pleased. The Grandfathers didn’t wake up. The noise he had heard as a boy was just papervine getting hotter or colder. That was true, and he could prove it. It wasn’t hard to work out, so why is it all I can do not to wet myself? Because papervine moving doesn’t sound interesting and walking skeletons does, that’s why. Somehow they make us feel more important. Even our fears make us feel important, because we fear that we might not be.
p. 237Source: Wikiquote · CC BY-SA 4.0
More from this book
“That’s unfair!” said Daphne.
“No, it’s science,” said her father. “‘Could have’ isn’t good enough. Nor is ‘might have’! ‘Did’ is the trick.”
p. 335
No one stuck up their hands and there was no voting, but she thought, I wonder if it was like this in ancient Athens? This is pure democracy. People don’t just get a vote; they have a say.
p. 276
“What about the hangman? Doesn’t he do murder, then?”
[No, because enough people say it isn’t. That’s what a courtroom is for. It’s where the law happens.]
“And that makes it right? Didn’t God say, ‘Thou shalt not kill’?”
[Yes. But after that it got complicated.]
p. 260

