On the Disc the gods dealt severely with atheists.

Now he knew: They were real. Who’d make up a thing like this? Okay, one of them was a cheese that rolled around of its own accord, but nobody was perfect.

History, contrary to popular theories, is kings and dates and battles.

The conflict is not between Christianity and Islam or between East and West - instead, it is between stupid people and other stupid people.

It takes forty men with their feet on the ground to keep one man with his head in the air.

The more you think about it, the more amazing the everyday world of human beings becomes: most of it doesn't actually exist at all.

Dwarfs were not a naturally religious species, but in a world where pit props could crack without warning and pockets of fire damp could suddenly explode they'd seen the need for gods as the sort of supernatural equivalent of a hard hat. Besides, when you hit your thumb with an eight-pound hammer it's nice to be able to blaspheme. It takes a very special and strong-minded kind of atheist to jump up and down with their hand clasped under their other armpit and shout, "Oh, random-fluctuations-in-the-space-time-continuum!" or "Aaargh, primitive-and-outmoded-concept on a crutch!