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Bishops move diagonally. That's why they often turn up where the kings don't expect them to be.
Terry Pratchett
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The actions of individuals can be unpredictable and can lead to unexpected outcomes.

This quote suggests that those who take unconventional paths or approaches, like bishops moving diagonally in chess, can surprise those in power, represented by the kings. It emphasizes the idea that innovative or non-linear thinking can lead to unanticipated results, often catching established authorities off guard.

Themes

UnexpectedThinkingStrategyChangeInnovation

In practice

Example use cases

Citing this quote in a discussion about leadership strategies.

More from Terry Pratchett

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.
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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.
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Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it.
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You can't trample infidels when you're a tortoise. I mean, all you could do is give them a meaningful look.
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Any fool could be a witch with a runic knife, but it took skill to be one with an apple corer.
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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.
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