They had the well-fed, important, careful look of people who took care not to be at the top. A lot of… — Terry Pratchett
They had the well-fed, important, careful look of people who took care not to be at the top. A lot of government people like them had dined at the Hall. They had learned over the years that the top was not a happy or safe place to be. One rung down, that was the place for a sensible man. You advised the king, you had a lot of power, in a quiet kind of way, and you didn’t get murdered anything like as often. And, if the ruler started to get funny ideas and it became a bit of an embarrassment, you just…took care of things.
p. 303Source: Wikiquote · CC BY-SA 4.0
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“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.”
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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
And to save time, shall we pretend we’ve had the argument and I won?
p. 230
