Please find enclosed pictures of my room and my friends in the Watch, Nobby is the one making the Humerous Gesture but he is a Rough Diamond and a good soul deep down.”
He thought about his badge in the same way he thought about his nose. He didn’t love it or hate it. It was just his badge.
For some reason Lady Sybil, keen of eye in every other respect, persisted in thinking of Corporal Nobbs as a cheeky, lovable rascal.
lance-constable, despite what I vouchsafed to you earlier re
lance-constable, despite what I vouchsafed to you earlier re
lance-constable, despite what I vouchsafed to you earlier re
lance-constable, despite what I vouchsafed to you earlier re
“Pride is all very well, but a sausage is a sausage,” he said.
had been given to understand it had been destroyed. I’m quite sure I gave orders.” This was the question the Assassin had been hoping would not be asked. But the Patrician was good at that game. “Er. We—that is, my predecessor—thought it should serve as a warning and an example.” The Patrician looked up and smiled brightly. “Capital!” he said. “I have always had a great belief in the effectiveness of examples. So I am sure you’ll be able to sort this out with minimum inconvenience all round.”
they’d seen the need for gods as the sort of supernatural equivalent of a hard hat.
Very slowly, like a mighty sequoia beginning the first step towards resurrection as a million Save The Trees leaflets,
“Everybody down!” Everyone in the room ducked, except for the two Watchmen, one of whom was in a sense pre-ducked and the other of whom was several minutes behind events.
Vimes smiled. Someone was trying to kill him, and that made him feel more alive than he had done for days. And they were also slightly less intelligent than he was. This is a quality you should always pray for in your would-be murderer.
But the point was that if Carrot had erupted into a song and dance, people would have joined in. Carrot could have jollied a circle of standing stones to form up behind him and do a rumba.
the Patrician’s view of crime and punishment. If there was crime, there should be punishment. If the specific criminal should be involved in the punishment process then this was a happy accident, but if not then any criminal would do, and since everyone was undoubtedly guilty of something, the net result was that, in general terms, justice was done.
“A night watchman in crappy armor is about your métier,” said Colon, who looked around proudly to see if anyone had noticed the slanty thing over the e.
He could lead armies, Angua thought. He really could. Some people have inspired whole countries to great deeds because of the power of their vision. And so could he. Not because he dreams about marching hordes, or world domination, or an empire of a thousand years. Just because he thinks that everyone’s really decent underneath and would get along just fine if only they made the effort, and he believes that so strongly it burns like a flame which is bigger than he is. He’s got a dream and we’re all part of it, so that it shapes the world around him. And the weird thing is that no one wants to disappoint him. It’d be like kicking the biggest puppy in the universe.
It was strange to find an armory in a city which relied on deceit, bribery and assimilation to defeat its enemies but, as Sergeant Colon said, once you’d won their weapons off ’em you needed somewhere to store the things.
“Family used to live up Kingsway. Used to be as rich as Creosote.” “Who was Creosote?” “Some foreign bugger who was rich.”
“You know what I mean!” “Can’t say I do. Can’t say I do. Clothing has never been what you might call a thingy of dog wossname.” Gaspode scratched his ear. “Two metasyntactic variables there. Sorry.”
Vimes watched the feeble pun go right through Carrot’s head without triggering his brain.
“Not a bloody flea left,” he moaned, dropping the bowl. “An’ I had nearly the complete set.