small gods quotes

The people who really run organizations are usually found several
levels down, where it is still possible to get things done.
(Small Gods)

“Slave is an Ephebian word. In Om we have no word for slave,” said
Vorbis.
"So I understand," said the Tyrant. "I imagine that fish have no
word for water."
(Small Gods)

[...] the first man to hear the voice of Om, and who gave Om his view of humans, was a shepherd and not a goatherd. They have quite different ways of looking at the world, and the whole of history might have been different.
For sheep are stupid and have to be driven. But goats are intelligent and have to be led.
(Small Gods)

Gods don't like people not doing much work. People who aren't busy all the time might start to think.
(Small Gods)

“He says gods like to see an atheist around. Gives them something
to aim at.”
(Small Gods)

'We'll never make it alive!'
CORRECT.
(Small Gods)

'Just because you can explain it doesn't mean it's not still a miracle.'
(Small Gods)

The trouble with being a god is that you've got no one to pray to.
(Small Gods)

Guilt was the grease in which the wheels of the authority turned.
(Small Gods)

'Life's like a beach. And then you die.'
(Small Gods)

“You're not one of us.”
"I don't think I'm one of them, either," said Brutha. "I'm one of
mine."
(Small Gods)

When the least they could do to you was everything, then the most they could do to you suddenly held no terror.
(Small Gods)

'Winners never talk about glorious victories. That's because they're the ones who see what the battlefield looks like afterwards. It's only the losers who have glorious victories.'
(Small Gods)

“All the other prophets came back with commandments!”
"Where they get them?"
"I ... suppose they made them up."
"You get them from the same place."
(Small Gods)

'I think, if you want thousands, you've got to fight for one.'
(Small Gods)

One day a tortoise will learn how to fly.
(Small Gods)

The labyrinth of Ephebe is ancient and full of one hundred and one amazing
things you can do with hidden springs, razor-sharp knives, and falling
rocks.
(Small Gods)

Simony's eyes gleamed with the gleam of a man who had seen the
future and found it covered with armour plating.
(Small Gods)

“Chain letters," said the Tyrant. ”The Chain Letter to the Ephebians.
Forget Your Gods. Be Subjugated. Learn to Fear. Do not break the chain --
the last people who did woke up one morning to find fifty thousand armed
men on their lawn."
(Small Gods)

For a very few, the sky's the limit.
And, sometimes, not even that.
(Small Gods)

When you can flatten entire cities at a whim, a tendency towards
quiet reflection and seeing-things-from-the-other-fellow's-point-
of-view is seldom necessary.
(Small Gods)

Bishops move diagonally. That's why they often turn up where the kings don't expect them to be.
(Small Gods)

“That's right," he said. "We're philosophers. We think, therefore we am.”
(Small Gods)

“He's muffed it," said Simony. ”he could have done *anything* with
them. And he just told them the facts. You can't inspire people with
facts. They need a cause. They need a symbol."
(Small Gods)

YOU HAVE PERHAPS HEARD THE PHRASE THAT HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE?
“Yes. Yes, of course.”
Death nodded. IN TIME, he said, YOU WILL LEARN THAT IT IS WRONG.
(Small Gods)

“I used to think that *I* was stupid, and then I met philosophers.”
(Small Gods)

“All holy piety in public, and all peeled grapes and self-indulgence
in private.”
(Small Gods)

“Why do you bother with him? He's had thousands of people killed!”
"Yes, but perhaps he thought that you wanted it."
(Small Gods)

There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that
cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just
comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
(Small Gods)

Probably the last man who knew how it worked had been tortured to
death years before. Or as soon as it was installed. Killing the
creator was a traditional method of patent protection.
(Small Gods)