Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Terry Pratchett

Quote by Terry Pratchett

“They put it like that?' said Glenda, wide-eyed. 'Oh, you know the sort of thing if you read the papers a lot,' said Ponder. 'I seriously think they think that it is their job to calm people down by first of all explaining why they should be overexcited and very worried.”

Quote by Terry Pratchett

Book:Unseen Academicals
Create image

Work

Unseen Academicals

This book is a satirical work that delves into the lives of students and faculty at a fictional university, focusing on their participation in a unique and unconventional sport. The narrative is filled with humor and wit, offering a critical look at the academic and social dynamics within the institution. more

Author

Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett was a British author renowned for his fantasy novel series, 'Discworld'. His works are appreciated for their unique humor and profound philosophical insights. Pratchett's contributions to literature extend beyond fantasy, encompassing science fiction, humor, and children's literature. more

You May Also Like

“Now, looking for labels, it is hard to call the Hell's Angels anything but mutants. They are urban outlaws with a rural ethic and a new, improvised style of self-preservation. Their image of themselves derives mainly from Celluloid, from the Western movies and two-fisted TV shows that have taught them most of what they know about the society they live in. Very few read books, and in most cases their formal education ended at fifteen or sixteen. What little they know of history has come from the mass media, beginning with comics ... so if they see themselves in terms of the past, it's because they can't grasp the terms of the present, much less the future. They are the sons of poor men and drifters, losers and the sons of losers. Their backgrounds are overwhelmingly ordinary. As people, they are like millions of other people. But in their collective identity they have a peculiar fascination so obvious that even the press has recognized it, although not without cynicism. In its ritual flirtation with reality the press has viewed the Angels with a mixture of awe, humor and terror -- justified, as always, by a slavish dedication to the public appetite, which most journalists find so puzzling and contemptible that they have long since abandoned the task of understanding it to a handful of poll-takers and "experts.”

ExpertsMutantsThe PressPoll Takers
Book:Hell's Angels
Create image

“There is yet another surprise for someone coming from the totalitarian East with its rigorously unified press: One discovers a common trend of preferences within the Western press as a whole (the spirit of the time), generally accepted patterns of judgment, and maybe common corporate interests, the sum effect being not competition but unification.”

MediaPropagandaThe Press
Book:A World Split Apart: Commencement Address Delivered at Harvard University, June 8, 1978
Create image

“Simply put, we have more people talking about news and less original reporting. Whether on television or online, there is no shortage of analysis. But analysis is only as good as the information that supports it. The deep cuts to newsrooms in print and electronic media have resulted in far fewer reporters waking up each morning deciding what story they will chase. There is less investigative reporting ....”

NewsThe Press
Book:What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism
Create image

“The heroic books, even if printed in the character of our mother tongue, will always be in a language dead to degenerate times; and we must laboriously seek the meaning of each word and line, conjecturing a larger sense than common use permits out of what wisdom and valor and generosity we have. The modern cheap and fertile press, with all its translations, has done little to bring us nearer to the heroic writers of antiquity. They seem as solitary, and the letter in which they are printed as rare and curious, as ever. It is worth the expense of youthful days and costly hours, if you learn only some words of an ancient language, which are raised out of the trivialness of the street, to be perpetual suggestions and provocations. It is not in vain that the farmer remembers and repeats the few Latin words which he has heard. Men sometimes speak as if the study of the classics would at length make way for more modern and practical studies; but the adventurous student will always study classics, in whatever language they may be written and however ancient they may be. For what are the classics but the noblest recorded thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there are such answers to the most modern inquiry in them as Delphi and Dodona never gave. We might as well omit to study Nature because she is old.”

HeroicTranslationClassicsThe Press
Book:Walden or, Life in the Woods
Create image

“Kierkegaard disparages the irresponsibility afforded by the modern press which allows people to address the crowd in an arena where public opinion has become the hallmark of truth, but in which the opinion-formers remain hidden. Everyone seeks anonymity--in the press, in the crowd, to the point where everyone is no one! ,”

IdentityInternetSecretsAnonymityThe Press
Book:Kierkegaard's Critique of Christian Nationalism
Create image