In the words of the philosopher Sceptum, the founder of my profession: am I going to get paid for this?
Interpretation
This quote humorously highlights the practical considerations of work and compensation.
Terry Pratchett's quote reflects a blend of philosophical inquiry and humor by referencing Sceptum, who questions the financial rewards for work. It suggests that while lofty ideas and professions might sound noble, the reality often hinges on the more mundane concern of whether one will be compensated for their efforts.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of being practical in one's career choices.
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.
The nightmare is you spend the rest of your life being funny at parties and then people say, 'Why didn't you do that when you were on television?'
SYCOPHANT- One who approaches Greatness on his belly so that he may not be commanded to turn and be kicked. He is sometimes an editor.
He has been a doctor a year now and has had two patients - no, three, I think - yes, it was three; I attended their funerals.
I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.
I'm a lot less serious than people think, it's probably because the way my face is put together.
I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet, so who am I to judge?
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