There are thousands of good reasons why magic doesn't rule the world. They're called Witches and Wizards.

If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

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.

A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.

But the helmet had gold decoration, and the bespoke armorers had made a new gleaming breastplate with useless gold ornamentation on it. Sam Vimes felt like a class traitor every time he wore it. He hated being thought of as one of those people that wore stupid ornamental armor. It was gilt by association.

A hardback's harder at Christmas time because that's a good hardback buying time.

Find the story, Granny Weatherwax always said. She believed that the world was full of story shapes. If you let them, they controlled you. But if you studied them, if you found out about them... you could use them, you could change them.