A Thaum is the basic unit of magical strength. It has been universally established as the amount of magic needed to create one small white pigeon or three normal-sized billiard balls.

Lessee...he'd gone off after the funeral and gotten drunk. No, not drunk, another word, ended with "er." Drunker. that was it.

Knowing that you are going to die is, I suspect, the beginning of wisdom.

The duke had a mind that ticked like a clock and, like a clock, it regularly went cuckoo.

Peace?' said Vetinari. 'Ah, yes, defined as period of time to allow for preparation for the next war.

You did what you were told or you didn't get paid, and if things went wrong it wasn't your problem. It was the fault of whatever idiot has accepted this message for sending in the first place. No one cared about you, and everyone at headquarters was an idiot. It wasn't your fault, no one listened to you. Headquarters had even started an Employee of the Month scheme to show how much they cared. That was how much they didn't care.

I was a very keen reader of science fiction, and during the time I was going to libraries, it was good, written by people who knew their science.