Peace?' said Vetinari. 'Ah, yes, defined as period of time to allow for preparation for the next war.
Interpretation
Peace is often a temporary state before conflict resumes.
This quote by Terry Pratchett suggests that what we commonly refer to as 'peace' is actually a fleeting phase that serves as a pause, allowing nations or groups to regroup and prepare for future conflicts. It reflects a cynical view on the nature of peace in human affairs, implying that true tranquility is rare and often interrupted by ongoing struggles and preparations for war.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about international relations to highlight the cyclical nature of conflict.
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.
One can acquire everything in solitude except character.
He who lives only for himself is truly dead to others.
It is a mistake to assume that if everybody does his job, it will be all right. The whole system may be in trouble.
The only use for an atomic bomb is to keep somebody else from using one. It can give us no protection - only the doubtful satisfaction of retaliation...
It is a general principle of human nature, that a man will be interested in whatever he possesses, in proportion to the firmness or precariousness of the tenure by which he holds it.
The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected.
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