No, what he didn't like about heroes was that they were usually suicidally gloomy when sober and homicidally insane when drunk.
Interpretation
This quote humorously critiques the dual nature of heroes, suggesting they often struggle with extreme emotions.
Terry Pratchett's quote highlights the paradoxical nature of heroes, portraying them as individuals who are often burdened with deep sorrow and despair when sober, yet can become dangerously irrational when intoxicated. This depiction invites reflection on the complexities of heroism, suggesting that those we see as heroic may wrestle with significant inner turmoil that contrasts sharply with the idealized image of courage and strength.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech about the complexities of public figures.
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.
Jack: Actually, I was found. Lady Bracknell: Found? Jack: Uh, yes, I was in... a handbag. Lady Bracknell: A handbag? Jack: Yes, it was... [makes gestures] Jack: an ordinary handbag.
Whiskey is carried into committee rooms in demijohns and carried out in demagogues.
I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch and tumbling into it
A sense of humor is just common sense dancing.
If there is a Nora Ephron signature anything it is that there's slightly too much food. I have a friend whose mantra is: You must choose. And I believe the exact opposite: I think you should always have at least four desserts that are kind of fighting with each other.
Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.
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