Although she was aware that somewhere under her complicated strata of vests and petticoats there was some skin, that didn't mean to say she approved of it.
Interpretation
The quote humorously addresses the contradictions in societal norms regarding modesty and self-image.
In this quote, Terry Pratchett cleverly highlights the absurdity of societal standards of dressing and modesty, suggesting that while one might acknowledge their own physicality beneath layers of clothing, the discomfort with those societal expectations remains. It reflects a comedic take on how individuals navigate their identities in relation to societal norms, often leading to a humorous disconnect between reality and accepted notions of propriety.
In practice
During a discussion on fashion and self-image, this quote can add a light-hearted perspective.
And then Jack chopped down what was the world's last beanstalk, adding murder and ecological terrorism to the theft, enticement, and trespass charges already mentioned, and all the giant's children didn't have a daddy anymore. But he got away with it and lived happily ever after, without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done...which proves that you can be excused for just about anything if you are a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions.
They've got something they do it with, I think it's called a mocracy, and it means everyone in the whole country can say who the new Tyrant is. One man ... one vet. ... Everyone has ... the vet. Except for women, of course. And children. And criminals. And slaves. And stupid people. And people of foreign extraction. And people disapproved of for, er, various reasons. And lots of other people. But everyone apart from them. It's a very enlightened civilization.
Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it.
You can't trample infidels when you're a tortoise. I mean, all you could do is give them a meaningful look.
Any fool could be a witch with a runic knife, but it took skill to be one with an apple corer.
People look down on stuff like geography and meteorology, and not only because they're standing on one and being soaked by the other. They don't look quite like real science. But geography is only physics slowed down and with a few trees stuck on it, and meteorology is full of excitingly fashionable chaos and complexity. And summer isn't a time. It's a place as well. Summer is a moving creature and likes to go south for the winter.
I'm every bourgeois nightmare - a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.
If an architect makes a mistake, he grows ivy to cover it. If a doctor makes a mistake, he covers it with soil. If a cook makes a mistake, he covers it with some sauce and says it is a new recipe.
There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!
I think the best comedians have that bravery and courage to say, 'This is what it is. This is unfair; that's not cool.'
I learned how fast you can go from being an international hero to being a reference in a joke on a late night talk show.
I can hardly forbear hurling things at him.
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