We remember Terry Pratchett with some of the best, most memorable quotes from his beloved Discworld series.

The world has lost one of its most brilliant, most original voices: Sir Terry Pratchett passed away Thursday, March 12, 2015, aged 66.

The British author’s greatest professional accomplishment was without a doubt the Discworld series; his bizarre and fantastic universe allowed him to tell engaging, human stories that provided readers with invaluable life lessons. Pratchett’s takes on death, love, happiness and the meaning of life will stay with his readers long after he is gone.

As we mourn Terry Pratchett’s untimely death, we want to draw your attention to some of the best observations about the world he shared through his writing. Because while 66 years is far too short a time to be alive, he managed to pass on more wisdom than most people who live to 100 get the chance to do. And for that, we are grateful.

Sir Terry, here are a few of the invaluable life lessons that your books have taught us:

On life and death

“Is it heroic to die like this?” said Conina.
“I think it is,” he said, “and when it comes to dying, there’s only one opinion that matters.”
– Sourcery

“Death isn’t cruel. Merely terribly, terribly good at his job.”
– Sourcery

“Time is like a drug. Too much of it kills you.”
– Small Gods

“I have seen galaxies die. I have watched atoms dance. But until I had the dark behind the eyes, I didn’t know the death from the dance.”
– The Thief of Time

“Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened.”
– Moving Pictures

“Never age. Never die. Live for ever in that one last white-hot moment, when the crowd screamed. When every note was a heartbeat. Burn across the sky.
You will never grow old. They will never say you died.”
– Soul Music

On how the world works

“It is said that the gods play games with the fates of men. But what games, and why, and the identities of the actual pawns, and what the game is, and what the rules are – who knows?
Best not to speculate.”
– Guards! Guards!

“Why is it all Mr Dibbler’s films are set against the background of a world gone mad?” said the dwarf.
Soll’s eyes narrowed. “Because Mr Dibbler,” he growled, “is a very observant man.”
– Moving Pictures

“One of the hardest lessons of young Sam’s life had been finding out that the people in charge weren’t in charge. It had been finding out that governments were not, on the whole, staffed by people who had a grip, and that plans were what people made instead of thinking.”
– Night Watch

“Stars don’t care what you wish, and magic don’t make things better, and no-one doesn’t get burned who sticks their hand in a fire.”
– Witches Abroad

“You can’t go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it’s just a cage.”
– Witches Abroad

On history, and those who write it

“People don’t alter history any more than birds alter the sky, they just make brief patterns on it.”
– Equal Rites

“The truth isn’t easily pinned to a page. In the bathtub of history the truth is harder to hold than soap, and much more difficult to find.”
– Sourcery

“A thousand years ago we thought the world was a bowl. Five hundred years ago we knew it was a globe. Today we know it is flat and round carried through space on the back of a turtle. Don’t you wonder what shape it will turn out to be tomorrow?”
– The Truth

“Demons have existed on the Discworld for at least as long as the gods, who in many ways they closely resemble. The difference is basically the same as between terrorists and freedom fighters.”
– Eric

“Long Live The Changing Things To A More Equitable State While Retaining Due Respect For The Traditions Of Our Forebears And Of Course Not Harming The August Personage Of The Emperor Endeavor!”
– Interesting Times

On the power of imagination

“What was it they said about gods? They wouldn’t exist if there weren’t people to believe in them? And that applied to everything. Reality was what went on inside people’s heads.”
– Moving Pictures

“Ninety percent of most magic merely consists of knowing one extra fact.”
– Night Watch

“He felt that the darkness was full of unimaginable horrors – and the trouble with unimaginable horrors was that they were only too easy to imagine.”
– The Light Fantastic

“Perfectly ordinary books, printed on commonplace paper in mundane ink. It would be a mistake to think that they weren’t also dangerous, just because reading them didn’t make fireworks go off in the sky. Reading them sometimes did the more dangerous trick of making fireworks go off in the privacy of the reader’s brain.”
– Soul Music

“Just because you can explain it doesn’t mean it’s not still a miracle.”
– Small Gods

YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN’T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?
– Hogfather

Page 2: Terry Pratchett on success, love, morality and humanity

On success and motivation

“Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs, and then you had the urge to pass it on.”
– Hogfather

“A vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you’re attempting can’t be done. A person ignorant of the possibility of failure can be a half-brick in the path of the bicycle of history.”
– Equal Rites

“You know what the greatest tragedy is in the whole world? It’s all the people who never find out what it is they really want to do or what it is they’re really good at. It’s all the sons who become blacksmiths because their fathers were blacksmiths. It’s all the people who could be really fantastic flute players who grow old and die without ever seeing a musical instrument, so they become bad ploughmen instead. It’s all the people with talents who never even find out. Maybe they are never born in a time when it is possible to find out.”
– Moving Pictures

“In a world where we all move in curves he proceeds in a straight line. And going straight in a world of curves makes things happen.”
– Night Watch

“If you don’t turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else’s story.”
“And what if your story doesn’t work?”
“You keep changing it until you find one that does.”
– The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

On love and compassion

“And what would humans be without love?”
RARE.
– Sourcery

“All he knew was that you couldn’t hope to try for the big stuff, like world peace and happiness, but you might just about be able to achieve some tiny deed that’d make the world, in a small way, a better place.”
– The Fifth Elephant

“Ninety percent of true love is acute, ear-burning embarrassment.”
– Wyrd Sisters

“Sometimes the only thing you could do for people was to be there.”
– Soul Music

“Charity ain’t giving people what you wants to give, it’s giving people what they need to get.”
– Hogfather

On morality

“There were far worse things than Evil. All the demons in Hell would torture your very soul, but that was precisely because they valued souls very highly; Evil would always try to steal the universe, but at least it considered the universe worth stealing. But the grey world behind those empty eyes would trample and destroy without even according its victims the dignity of hatred. It wouldn’t even notice them.”
– The Light Fantastic

“You have the effrontery to be squeamish, it thought at him. But we were dragons. We were supposed to be cruel, cunning, heartless, and terrible. But this much I can tell you, you ape – the great face pressed even closer, so that Wonse was staring into the pitiless depths of his eyes – we never burned and tortured and ripped one another apart and called it morality.”
– Guards! Guards!

“Good and bad is tricky. I ain’t too certain about where people stand. P’raps what matters is which way you face.”
– Witches Abroad

“Yes, but humans are more important than animals,” said Brutha.
“This is a point of view often expressed by humans,” said Om.
– Small Gods

“I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You are wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.”
– Guards! Guards!

“Always remember that the crowd that applauds your coronation is the same crowd that will applaud your beheading. People like a show.”
– Going Postal

On humanity

“William wondered why he always dislike people who said ‘no offense meant.’ Maybe it was because they found it easier to say ‘no offence meant’ than actually refrain from giving offense. ”
– The Truth

“Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying ‘End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH,’ the paint wouldn’t even have time to dry.”
– The Thief of Time

“Stupid men are often capable of things the clever would not dare to contemplate.”
– Feet of Clay

“Windle shook his head sadly. Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.”
– Reaper Man

“Humans are always slightly lost. It’s a basic characteristic. It explains a lot about them.”
– Lords and Ladies

“It’s vital to remember who you really are. It’s very important. It isn’t a good idea to rely on other people or things to do it for you, you see. They always get it wrong.”
– Sourcery

Thank you, Terry Pratchett, for pulling the veil back and reminding us what the world is really like.

With his fantastical, otherwordly tales, Pratchett was able to show us truths we might not otherwise have seen. We’ll leave you with what might just be the best, most inspirational piece of life advice from Pratchett’s brilliant mind:

I. This is not a game.
II. Here and now, you are alive.

Rest in peace, Terry Pratchett. And thank you.