Some Favorite "Hogfather" Quotes
Death:
Humans need fantasy to *be* human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
Susan:
With tooth fairies? Hogfathers?
Death:
Yes. As practice, you have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
Susan:
So we can believe the big ones?
Death:
Yes. Justice, mercy, duty. That sort of thing.
Susan:
They're not the same at all.
Death:
You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest
powder, and sieve it through the finest sieve, and then show me one atom
of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet, you try to act as if there
is some ideal order in the world. As if there is some, some rightness in
the universe, by which it may be judged.
Susan:
But people have got to believe that, or what's the point?
Death:
You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?
and...
[introduction, describing the origin of Discworld]
Death:
It was some time after its creation when most people forgot that the
very oldest stories of the beginning are, sooner or later, about...
blood. At least, that's one theory. The philosopher Didactylos has
suggested an alternative hypothesis: "Things just happen. What the
hell."
Humans need fantasy to *be* human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
Susan:
With tooth fairies? Hogfathers?
Death:
Yes. As practice, you have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
Susan:
So we can believe the big ones?
Death:
Yes. Justice, mercy, duty. That sort of thing.
Susan:
They're not the same at all.
Death:
You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest
powder, and sieve it through the finest sieve, and then show me one atom
of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet, you try to act as if there
is some ideal order in the world. As if there is some, some rightness in
the universe, by which it may be judged.
Susan:
But people have got to believe that, or what's the point?
Death:
You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?
and...
[introduction, describing the origin of Discworld]
Death:
It was some time after its creation when most people forgot that the
very oldest stories of the beginning are, sooner or later, about...
blood. At least, that's one theory. The philosopher Didactylos has
suggested an alternative hypothesis: "Things just happen. What the
hell."