# Quote — Terry Pratchett, Nation

> There had been a great wave before, everyone said. It turned up in the stories of the Time When Things Were Otherwise and the Moon Was Different. Old men said it was because people had been bad, but old men always said that kind of thing. Waves happened, people died, and the gods did not care.

- Author: [Terry Pratchett](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett.md)
- Book: [Nation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/nation.md)
- Page: 87
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nation_(novel)#Quotes) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/nation/there-had-been

## 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 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/nation/thats-unfair-said.md)

> 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 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/nation/no-one-stuck.md)

> “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 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/nation/what-about-the.md)