Sam Vimes Quotes

#1. We deny the right of any portion of the species to decide for another portion what is and what is not their 'proper sphere.' The proper sphere for all human beings is the largest and highest which they are able to attain to.

Harriet Taylor Mill

#2. There was no universe, anywhere, where a Sam Vimes would give in on this, because if he did then he wouldn't be Sam Vimes anymore.

Terry Pratchett

#3. History was full of the bones of good men who'd followed bad orders in the hope that they could soften the blow. Oh, yes, there were worse things they could do, but most of them began right where they started following bad orders.

Terry Pratchett

#4. Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.

Mahatma Gandhi

#5. I think Barack Obama and his team believe that the federal government is best prepared to handle virtually everything in our lives. I mean, they're socialists in every respect of the word and I think they'd like to take over everything in our lives if they could, including health care.

Mark Neumann

#6. I would like to be George Clooney diplomatic. I just don't have the wherewithal yet or the inner serenity.

Shia Labeouf

#7. Shut up sergeant. You're a free troll. That's an order
Sam Vimes

Terry Pratchett

#8. The works of the creative spirit last, they are essentially imperishable, while the world-stirring historical activities of even the most eminent men are circumscribed by time.

Bruno Walter

#9. I never would've thought in Homeland Security that you would see someone saying that we needed to have hearings on radicalization of Christianity because it's a purported threat to America as much as radicalization of Islam.

Mo Brooks

#10. Well, the news has got around. The Duchess of Keepsake has invited us to a ball, Sir Henry and Lady Withering have invited us to a ball, and Lord and Lady Hangfinger have invited us to ... yes, a ball."
"Well, that's a lot of ... "
"Don't you dare, Sam.

Terry Pratchett

#11. I assure you I will not kill you," said Inigo.
"I know that," said Vimes. "But will you try?

Terry Pratchett

#12. Cheery was aware that Commander Vimes didn't like the phrase 'The innocent have nothing to fear', believing the innocent had everything to fear, mostly from the guilty but in the longer term even more from those who say things like 'The innocent have nothing to fear'.

Terry Pratchett

#13. And Sam Vimes thought: Why is Young Sam's nursery full of farmyard animals anyway? Why are his books full of moo-cows and baa-lambs? He is growing up in the city. He will only see them on a plate! They go sizzle!

Terry Pratchett

#14. Commander, I always used to consider that you had a definite anti-authoritarian streak in you."
"Sir?"
"It seems that you have managed to retain this even though you are authority."
"Sir?"
"That's practically zen.

Terry Pratchett

#15. Yeah, all right, but everyone knows they torture people," mumbled Sam.
"Do they?" said Vimes. "Then why doesn't anyone do anything about it?"
"'cos they torture people.

Terry Pratchett

#16. The rooftops of Ankh-Morpork sprouted a fine array of gargoyles even in normal times, but now they were alive with as ghastly an array of faces as ever were seen outside a woodcut about the evils of gin-drinking among the non-woodcut-buying classes.

Terry Pratchett

#17. I'm not a natural killer! See this? See what it says? I'm supposed to keep the peace, I am! If I kill people to do it, I'm reading the wrong manual!

Terry Pratchett

#18. For the door to the house had many bolts, locks, bars, and fasteners, as is common in the dwellings of misers.

Michael Crichton

#19. There's lots of people will help you with alcohol business, but there's no one out there arranging little meetings where you can stand up and say, 'My name is Sam Vimes and I'm a really suspicious bastard.

Terry Pratchett

#20. A Duke couldn't have the arse hanging out of his trousers when meeting foreign diplomats. Actually even plain old Sam Vimes never had the arse hanging out of his trousers, either, but no one would have actually started a war if he had.

Terry Pratchett

#21. haiku moment: that moment of absolute intensity when the poet's grasp of his intuition is complete, so that the image lives its own life. Such

Kenneth Yasuda

#22. What's the orbital velocity of the moon?

Terry Pratchett

#23. Pat Roberts and I both feel very strongly that when we get to Iran, that we can't make the same mistakes. We have to ask the questions, the hard questions before, not afterwards, and get the right intelligence.

Jay Rockefeller

#24. Jackie had a keen eye for talent, and like an elephant never forgot. And, he was always right on the mark.

Audrey Meadows