Shaune Nirschl

“Death’s face was a mask of terror. Well, it was always a mask of terror, but this time he meant it to be.”
― Terry Pratchett, Mort

“Yet one caution let me give by the way to my present or future reader, who is actually melancholy—that he read not the symptomes or prognos-ticks of the following tract, lest, by applying that which he reads to himself, aggravating, appropriating things generally spoken, to his own person (as melancholy men for the most part do), he trouble or hurt himself, and get, in conclusion, more harm than good. I advise them therefore warily to peruse that tract. —Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford, 1621, Introduction”
― Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum

“Gods don’t like people not doing much work. People who aren’t busy all the time might start to think.”
― Terry Pratchett, Small Gods

“The Ephebians believed that every man should have the vote.* Every five years someone was elected to be Tyrant, provided he could prove that he was honest, intelligent, sensible, and trustworthy. Immediately after he was elected, of course, it was obvious to everyone that he was a criminal madman and totally out of touch with the view of the ordinary philosopher in the street looking for a towel. And then five years later they elected another one just like him, and really it was amazing how intelligent people kept on making the same mistakes.”
― Terry Pratchett, Small Gods