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According to the writer of the best-selling crime novel ever to have been published in the city of Ankh-Morpork, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse. And Commander Sam Vimes of... read more

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  • “Aristocrats don’t notice philosophical conundra. They just ignore them. Philosophy includes contemplating the possibility that you might be wrong, sir, and a real aristocrat knows that he is always right. It’s not vanity, you understand, it’s built-in absolute certainty. They may sometimes be as mad as a hatful of spoons, but they are always definitely and certainly mad.”
    Willikins
  • “Everyone should occasionally break the law in some small and delightful way, Drumknott. It's good for the hygiene of the brain.”
    Vetinari
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  • I tell you, commander, it’s true that some of the most terrible things in the world are done by people who think, genuinely think, that they’re doing it for the best, especially if there is some god involved.
    Highlighted by 47 Kindle customers
  • “What is normal? Normal is yesterday and last week and last month taken together.”
    Highlighted by 42 Kindle customers
  • Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger, how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man who breaks the law out of greed?”
    Highlighted by 40 Kindle customers
  • yogurt, which to Vimes’s mind was a type of cheese that wasn’t trying hard enough.
    Highlighted by 39 Kindle customers
  • once policemen stopped being civilians the only other thing they could be was soldiers.
    Highlighted by 37 Kindle customers
  • Everyone should occasionally break the law in some small and delightful way, Drumknott. It’s good for the hygiene of the brain.”
    Highlighted by 33 Kindle customers
  • There was no point in arguing with Sybil, because even if you thought that you’d won, it would turn out, by some magic unavailable to husbands, that you had, in fact, been totally misinformed.
    Highlighted by 28 Kindle customers
  • It is well known that any drive to reduce paperwork only results in extra paperwork.
    Highlighted by 26 Kindle customers
  • I have no particular objection to people taking substances that make them feel better, or more contented or, for that matter, see little dancing purple fairies—or even their god if it comes to that. It’s their brain, after all, and society can have no claim on it, providing they’re not operating heavy machinery at the time.
    Highlighted by 24 Kindle customers
  • good people have no business being so bad. Goodness is about what you do. Not what you pray to.
    Highlighted by 20 Kindle customers
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Setting & Locations edit see section history

First Sentence edit see section history

The goblin experience of the world is the cult or perhaps religion of Unggue.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 39 of 53 in Discworld. (standard series)

Preceded by I Shall Wear Midnight.

This book is in Kirkus Reviews: Best Fiction of 2011. (authoritative list)
This book is in 2011 Locus Recommended Reading List: Fantasy. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Terry Pratchett (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Doubleday UK
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: November 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-0385619264
Page Count: 400

Classification edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • The Colour of Magic
  • The Folklore of Discworld
  • The Light Fantastic
  • I Shall Wear Midnight
  • Pyramids
  • Guards! Guards!
  • Men at Arms
  • The Turtle Moves!

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